This year’s longlisted novels, written by authors representing nine nationalities, will transport you to a farm in southern Malaysia, a Hungarian housing estate and a small coastal town in Greece. You’ll meet a homesick Indian in snowy Vermont, a Kosovar torture survivor living in New York, and a shrimp fisherman in the north of England. 

The authors shine a light on the lives of Koreans in postcolonial Japan, a mother’s search for a child given up for adoption in Venezuela, and even the plight of endangered snails in contemporary Ukraine. They reimagine the great American road trip as a slow-burning mid-life crisis and take us into the heart of the UK’s coldest winter. 

As Roddy Doyle, Chair of the judges, says, the novels are ‘all alive with great characters and narrative surprises. All, somehow, examine identity, individual or national, and all, I think, are gripping and excellent.’  

You can read an extract from the books on the Booker Prize 2025 longlist here.