The 2025 longlist for the International Booker Prize, the world’s most influential award for translated fiction, has been announced.
Featuring a full thirteen authors making their International Booker Prize debut, and with topics ranging from sexual desire and disability to the disappearance of Palestinian people; from the weight of family history to the intensity of lifelong friendship; from body horror to AI ‘mothers’; from migrant distress calls during a deadly small boat crossing to streetwise, witty short stories chronicling the lives of a group of Mexican women; from stories spanning thousands of years to one revisiting a single day, the longlist packs big themes for all readers.
The longlist
- The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon
- On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland
- There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
- Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter
- Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated from Spanish by Julia Sanches and Heather Cleary
- Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson
- Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton
- Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda
- Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated from German by Daniel Bowles
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes
- Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi
- On a Woman’s Madness Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott
- A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson
The judges
The longlist of 13 books – 11 novels and two collections of short stories – has been chosen by the 2025 judging panel, chaired by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter. Porter is joined by prize-winning poet, director and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and Publishing Director of Wasafiri Sana Goyal; author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur; and award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton.
Max Porter, International Booker Prize 2025 Chair of judges, says:
Translated fiction is not an elite or rarefied cultural space requiring expert knowledge; it is the exact opposite. It is stories of every conceivable kind from everywhere, for everyone. It is a miraculous way in which we might meet one another in all our strangeness and sameness, and defy the borders erected between us.
In these books people are sharing strategies for survival; they are cheating, lying, joking and innovating. Some people are no longer of this earth, or they are sending visions from the future or from parallel universes. These books bring us into the agony of family, workplace or nation-state politics, the near-spiritual secrecy of friendship, the inner architecture of erotic feeling, the banality of capitalism and the agitations of faith.
The shortlist and winner announcements
The six books shortlisted for this year’s prize will be announced on Tuesday, 8 April 2025. Each shortlisted title will be awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).
The announcement of the winning book for 2025 will take place on Tuesday, 20 May 2025 at a ceremony at
Tate Modern in London, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. The announcement will be
livestreamed and the news will also be shared via press release and on the Booker Prizes’ website and social media channels. The winner receives £50,000; £25,000 for the author and £25,000 for the translator (or divided equally between multiple translators).
For more information, visit the Booker Prizes website.
The International Booker Prize 2025 Reading Challenge
To coincide with the longlist, the International Booker Prize is inviting readers to join its Reading Challenge, which saw over 200 libraries take part in 2024. The challenge encourages translated fiction fans to explore the books on the 2025 longlist, share their thoughts, and connect with readers from around the world. The Booker Prize Foundation team is creating digital and print POS to help your library users get involved (and borrow their books from you!).
Print POS will include A4 posters and bookmarks featuring this year’s longlist, and postcards to help your library users track and share their progress. The materials will also guide readers to a host of downloadable online resources including a reading chart, social media templates and more. What’s more, the Booker Prize Foundation will select one UK-based librarian to win two tickets to the ceremony at London’s Tate Modern on Tuesday, 20 May, along with an overnight stay and travel expenses, and one set of the longlisted books
Get involved
If you work in a library or workplace and would like to promote the longlist, you can download a free digital pack from our shop.
What do you think of the 2025 longlisted titles? Which have you read and what will be added to your TBR pile? Add your comments below, or click any title above to leave a review.
Share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using #InternationalBookerPrize2025.
Keep up with all the latest news on the Booker Prizes website.
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