In February, the Booker Prize announced the 13 books on its International Booker Prize 2025 longlist. Now, that longlist has been narrowed down to just six finalists on the shortlist: five novels and one short story collection. The winner will be announced May 20th.
The International Booker Prize “celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025.” The winner will receive a £50,000 prize, split between the author and the translator. Shortlisted works receive a £5,000 prize.
Here is this year’s shortlist.
The Shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2025
A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated by Mark HutchinsonOriginally published in French, A Leopard-Skin Hat is about the unnamed narrator’s passionate childhood friendship with Fanny, who is tormented by mental health struggles. The publisher’s description says, “Anne Serre poignantly depicts the bewildering back and forth between hope and despair involved in such a relationship, while playfully calling into question the very form of the novel.” |
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa BhasthiThis short story collection from an Indian author has already won the PEN Translates Award. These stories were originally published in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, and they spotlight women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Banu Mushtaq is a lawyer and journalist who has fought for women’s rights and against caste and religious oppression throughout her career—messages that shine in her fiction as well. |
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie HughesThis is the first book by Italian author Vincenzo Latronico to be translated into English. It follows an expat couple who revel in their digital “creatives” lifestyle in Berlin. As the years go by, though, they begin to grow bored, even as they attempt to live as “digital nomads.” Gideon Lewis-Kraus at the New Yorker calls this “the great Berlin novel we’ve all been waiting for.” |
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa YonedaIn Alex Acks’s list of the best new SFF in translation, they describe this work translated from the Japanese as a “mosaic novel of 14 interconnected stories tells the tale of a distant future where humanity is on the verge of extinction, and the best hope of survival is interbreeding with children made in factories and completely alien beings.” |
Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen StevensonThis novella translated from the French is based on the true story of a dinghy full of migrants who drowned in the Channel after French authorities refused to help, incorrectly insisting they were in British Waters. Small Boat imagines the inner life of the phone operator who took those calls and who places the blame for those 27 deaths on anything and everyone but herself. |
On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J. HavelandThis is the first in a seven-volume speculative series by Danish author Solvej Balle. It’s also been longlisted for the National Book Award for Translated Literature. It follows Tara Selter, who is caught in a time loop. We meet her as she is living through her 122nd November 18th. The publisher’s description says, “The first volume’s gravitational pull―a force inverse to its constriction―has the effect of a strong tranquilizer, but a drug under which your powers of observation only grow sharper and more acute. Give in to the book’s logic (its minute movements, its thrilling shifts, its slant wit, its slowing of time) and its spell is utterly intoxicating.” |
Find out more about the shortlist at the Booker Prize website.
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Source : The Shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2025 has Been Announced
