The Booker Prize 2025

‘The judges discussed the six books on the shortlist for more than five hours. The book we kept coming back to, the one that stood out from the other great novels, was Flesh – because of its singularity. We had never read anything quite like it.  It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read. 

‘At the end of the novel, we don’t know what the protagonist, István, looks like but this never feels like a lack; quite the opposite. Somehow, it’s the absence of words – or the absence of István’s words – that allow us to know István. Early in the book, we know that he cries because the person he’s with tells him not to; later in life, we know he’s balding because he envies another man’s hair; we know he grieves because, for several pages, there are no words at all.   

‘I don’t think I’ve read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well. It’s as if the author, David Szalay, is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe – almost to create – the character with him. The writing is spare and that is its great strength. Every word matters; the spaces between the words matter. The book is about living, and the strangeness of living and, as we read, as we turn the pages, we’re glad we’re alive and reading – experiencing – this extraordinary, singular novel.’ 

‘When the five judges took their places at the winner meeting, in the same room in Fortnum & Mason where they had first met in early February, they sat in the same seats. And they reflected, not only on the circularity of that moment after nine months of reading together, but on the curious fact that they had discussed half of the books that ended up on their shortlist that very first day. Those set a high standard, and by the end of the process the judges were so loath to part company with any of the six that they kept talking for five hours.  

’Flesh was among the books they had discussed on day one. The judges returned to it, again and again, and felt more invested in it every time. After a third reading, they struggled to think of another writer whose work they could compare it to. They found it spare, disciplined, urgent, honest and heartbreaking. With Flesh, they all agreed, David Szalay breaks new ground.  

‘I share the judges’ excitement over the work of an author who has been writing with ferocious and stark commitment for many years.  

‘As for the judges themselves: I will miss them hugely. Their acute attentiveness to the books submitted, their kindness towards each other, their articulacy and their energy have made this past year a pleasure.’ 

Roddy Doyle (Chair) is the author of 13 novels, including The Commitments, The Snapper, Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, for which he won the Booker Prize in 1993, The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, and, most recently, The Woman Behind the Door. He has also written three collections of short stories, eight books for children, the ‘Two Pints’ series, and a memoir of his parents, Rory and Ita. He co-wrote The Second Half with Roy Keane, and Kellie, with Kellie Harrington.   

He also co-wrote the screenplay for The Commitments and wrote the scripts for The Snapper and The Van. His most recent screen work was the script for Rosie, released in 2018. His four-part TV series, Family, was produced by the BBC in 1994. He has also written for the stage, including the book of The Commitments musical.

He is a co-founder of Fighting Words, which was set up to help and encourage children and young people throughout Ireland to write creatively.  

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ is the author of the novels Stay with Me and A Spell of Good Things, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2023.  

Her novels have been translated into over 20 languages. Stay with Me was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Wellcome Book Prize and the Kwani? Manuscript Project and won the Prix Les Afriques and the 9mobile Prize for Literature. A Spell of Good Things was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and the Encore Award after being longlisted for the Booker.  

Adébáyọ̀ is also the author of Provenance, which was staged as a multi-screen immersive installation co-produced in 2021 by Mutiny and the University of East Anglia. She studied at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and the University of East Anglia, earning degrees in Literature and Creative Writing.

Sarah Jessica Parker is an award-winning actor, producer, publisher and businesswoman who has won four Golden Globe Awards, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and two Emmy Awards. 

Parker next stars in the highly anticipated third season of HBO’s television series And Just Like That. The show is a revival of the critically acclaimed television series Sex and the City (1998-2004) in which Parker starred and served as an executive producer. Film credits include: L.A. Story, The Family Stone, State and Main, Mars Attacks!, Ed Wood, The First Wives Club, Miami Rhapsody, Honeymoon in Vegas, and Footloose. 

Parker’s award-winning production company, Pretty Matches Productions, develops film and television projects across a wide variety of genres. Among them was HBO’s Divorce, in which Parker starred for three seasons and for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe. Parker has worked in the theatre since 1976, when she debuted on Broadway in The Innocents, directed by Harold Pinter. She recently starred opposite her husband Matthew Broderick in the revival of Neil Simon‘s comedy play, Plaza Suite, directed by Tony Award winner John Benjamin Hickey. Parker’s performance earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the 2024 Olivier Awards. 

In June 2023, Parker launched SJP Lit, her own literary imprint in partnership with independent publisher Zando, publishing thought-provoking, big-hearted stories inclusive of international and underrepresented voices. Recent titles include They Dream in Gold by Mai Sennaar, Alina Grabowski’s Women and Children First, Elysha Chang’s A Quitter’s Paradise, and Coleman Hill, written by Kim Coleman Foote.  

Prior to this, Parker served as Editorial Director of the literary imprint SJP for Hogarth, publishing the New York Times bestseller A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza, winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize; Golden Child by Claire Adam; and Dawn, the critically acclaimed story collection by the jailed Turkish politician and human rights lawyer Selahattin Demirtas. Parker has additionally served as Honorary Chair of the American Library Association’s online reading resource platform Central Book Club, and as a board member of the nonprofit organisation United for Libraries. 

Parker served as a member of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities during the Obama administration. She currently serves as a Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors for the New York City Ballet and is an unstinting champion of contemporary literature.  

Chris Power is the author of a novel, A Lonely Man, a Washington Post and New Statesman book of the year, and a short story collection, Mothers, which was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and shortlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. His fiction has appeared in Granta, the Stinging Fly and the Dublin Review. He was a regular presenter of BBC Radio 4’s ‘Open Book’ from 2020 to 2024. His criticism has appeared in newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, the Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, the New Statesman, Fantastic Man and the London Review of Books. 

He regularly chairs literary events and has taught writing in various capacities, including on the MA in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. His judging experience includes the Frank O’Connor Prize, the BBC National Short Story Award, the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Goldsmiths Prize. 

Kiley Reid was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2020 for her first novel, Such a Fun Age. It was a New York Times bestseller, and a finalist for the New York Public Library’s 2020 Young Lions Fiction Award, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work by a Debut Author, and the Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award.  

Her second novel, Come and Get It, was also a New York Times bestseller, a Good Morning America Book Club pick, and named a best book of 2024 by the New Yorker, NPR, ELLE, and New York Magazine’s Vulture.  

Reid is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was the recipient of the Truman Capote Fellowship. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Playboy, the Guardian, and others. She has taught graduate-level seminars and workshops at Temple University and the University of Michigan.