A marker of literary excellence and cultural pulse, the Booker Prize has long championed fiction that both challenges and captivates. With its newly announced longlist, this year’s selection offers a compelling cross-section of voices and stories — each as worthy as the last of your attention. From bold debuts to masterful returns, these are the books poised to shape our reading (and thinking) in the months to come.
Love Forms
by Claire Adams
In this moving novel of love and reckoning, Dawn is contacted by a woman who might be the daughter she gave up 40 years ago. From Trinidad to England, motherhood to memory, it’s a story of what’s lost, what remains, and the fragile hope of finding your way back.
The South
by Tash Aw
Under a searing sun, two boys forge a quiet connection that neither fully understands — or can ignore. Set on a drought-stricken farm in the wake of loss, The South is a charged, atmospheric tale of family fracture, slow-burning desire, and the weight of inheritance in an unravelling world.
Universality
by Natasha Brown
Darkly clever and razor-sharp, Universality is a whodunnit turned inside out — a forensic, voyeuristic dive into language, ideology, and the spectacle of truth-telling. Natasha Brown’s follow-up to Assembly is part satire, part thriller, and wholly provocative.
One Boat
by Jonathan Buckley
One Boat follows Teresa as she returns to a coastal Greek town in the wake of loss. As past and present blur, and familiar faces reappear, questions of identity, free will, grief, and memory surface — revealing the quiet, tangled truths that shape who we are and why.
Flashlight
by Susan Choi
When ten-year-old Louisa’s father disappears one night in Japan, her life fractures. Years later, the mystery resurfaces, pulling her across borders and decades. Flashlight is a gripping, elegantly told story of one family’s search for truth, set against an ever-shifting backdrop.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny
by Kiran Desai
When Sonia and Sunny meet on an overnight train, a spark is lit — but family history and personal ghosts threaten to interfere. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is a sweeping, yet intimate portrait of two young people navigating love, legacy, and complicated familial bonds.
Audition
by Katie Kitamura
In a Manhattan restaurant, an acclaimed actress and a mysterious young man cross paths, their relationship uncertain and charged. True Roles is a thrilling, layered novel, exploring the fragile performances behind our closest bonds — partner, parent, muse — and reveals the hidden truths that even love can’t always uncover.
The Rest of Our Lives
by Ben Markovits
The Rest of Our Lives is a quietly powerful novel about marriage, memory, and the unspoken struggles beneath the surface. When Tom drives his daughter to college, he embarks on a restless road trip, facing past loves, family fractures, and his own health, unearthing the moments that quietly shape a lifetime.
The Land in Winter
by Andrew Miller
A masterful exploration of life’s quiet moments and the complexities of the heart, set against a harsh West Country winter. In December 1962, two couples confront buried secrets and faltering dreams as blizzards close in — forcing them to face what’s breaking, and what might still be saved.
Endling
by Maria Reva
An unforgettable debut weaving the lives of three women and an endangered snail amid the turmoil of contemporary Ukraine. As Yeva fights to save a rare species, and Nastia and Solomiya search for their missing mother, their paths converge in a fierce, poignant journey through a country on the edge of conflict.
Flesh
by David Szalay
István’s life begins quietly in a small Hungarian town, but a clandestine relationship and a series of uncontrollable events set him on a dangerous path. Flesh is a spare, gripping exploration of ambition, intimacy, and the invisible forces that shape — and perhaps undo — a man’s existence.
Seascraper
by Benjamin Wood
Thomas, bound by class and family ghosts, leads a quiet life scraping a living on a bleak shore while dreaming of music and love. When a mysterious visitor appears, his world shifts — offering hope, glamour, and uncertainty in this haunting, timeless portrait of yearning and escape.
Misinterpretation
by Ledia Xhoga
Ledia Xhoga’s ruminative debut follows an Albanian interpreter in New York whose work with trauma survivors blurs the line between empathy and self-destruction. As past and present collide, she’s forced to confront the toll of memory and identity as she revisits her past and questions her future.
