Booker Prize shortlist announced as SJP calls judging agony a privilege

LONDON — The Booker Prize has announced its six-strong shortlist from a 13-book longlist, with actress Sarah Jessica Parker among the five judges who described the process as agonizing yet a privilege. The Sex and the City star is part of a panel that also includes Roddy Doyle, Kiley Reid, Chris Power and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀. The winner will be crowned at a ceremony in London on Nov. 10.

The six shortlisted titles span a range of themes and geographies, from intimate family dramas to geopolitical thrillers. Susan Choi’s Flashlight is the first among the six to be highlighted. Choi’s sixth novel opens with a 10-year-old girl walking along a beach with her father, who is later presumed drowned, and follows the daughter across generations and locations from Japan to America and North Korea. The judges described Flashlight as a family drama and geopolitical thriller centered on a remarkable episode from history that lingers in the reader’s mind.

Kiran Desai, whose The Inheritance of Loss won the prize in 2006, returns with The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny Desai. The 650-page epic follows two Indian-born writers who have settled in the United States as they reconnect on an overnight train. The judges called it an intimate and expansive epic about two people finding a pathway to love and about class, race and nationhood, noting that the book contains a rich meditation on belonging and identity.

Katie Kitamura’s Audition, the fifth novel by the US author, centers on an actress who meets a man claiming to be her son, with overlapping narratives that blur the lines between performance and reality. The work has garnered attention for its taut, suspenseful narration that pushes readers to question what constitutes truth. The project has drawn additional notice because Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company is developing a film version starring Lucy Liu.

Ben Markovits’s The Rest of Our Lives follows a middle-aged man who leaves his home and marriage to embark on a road trip after dropping his daughter at university. Markovits’s long career includes writing that mixes personal introspection with larger social themes, and this 12th novel of his career is described by the judges as a road-trip chronicle that also probes illness, family bonds and farewell through a highly relatable narrator.

Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter is set in 1962 in the West Country and follows two couples — with two pregnant women — as a ferocious winter storm tests the characters’ relationships. Miller, who hails from Bristol, was previously nominated for Oxygen in 2001, and the judges described the novel as a gripping study of how people live and negotiate tensions within marriage during extraordinary circumstances.

David Szalay’s Flesh tracks a shy 15-year-old boy from a Hungarian housing estate who ascends into the world of London’s ultra-rich as a driver and security guard. Szalay’s sixth novel surveys class ascent and a man who is unusually detached from his own desires, while also delivering a fast-paced narrative that the judges called a compelling meditation on life.

Seven books from the longlist did not advance to the shortlist: Claire Adam, Tash Aw, Natasha Brown, Jonathan Buckley, Maria Reva, Benjamin Wood and Ledia Xhoga. Parker acknowledged that whittling the list down involved tough decisions and said there were books that the panel members had hoped to keep but could not.

To guide their choices, the judges used a traffic-light rating system — green, amber and red — to assess how strongly they connected with each work. Parker said the process of reaching the traffic lights was itself a moment of high emotion and excitement, noting that the experience of reading early copies and discussing them with other writers was a privilege.

The jury was chaired by former Booker winner Roddy Doyle and included writers Kiley Reid, Chris Power and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀. Doyle has previously guided the prize to a diverse set of winners, and this year’s panel sought a balance between established voices and newer, boundary-pushing narratives.

The Booker Prize remains one of the world’s most celebrated literary awards, with the winner earning not only international recognition but a substantial boost in readership. The shortlist announcements are typically followed by a flurry of critical analysis and book-tour activity as readers anticipate the final decision.

The ceremony to announce the winner is scheduled for November 10 in London, where the author will receive the prize and a substantial literary prize. The six shortlisted works represent a broad spectrum of modern fiction, from intimate family dramas to social thrillers, and reflect the prize’s ongoing interest in novels that traverse borders, cultures and social hierarchies.

In addition to the broadcasting and literary community interest, the inclusion of Audition has drawn extra attention for Kitamura, given the adaptation interest surrounding the book. The intersection of literature and film production continues to be a feature of contemporary Booker suspense, with audiences looking for how the shortlisted works translate to screen or stage.

As the countdown to the November ceremony begins, publishers and readers alike will revisit these six titles to gauge which narrative resonates most with the judges’ criteria for achievement, ambition and craft. The Booker Prize, while rooted in literature, often reflects broader cultural conversations about memory, power, class, and belonging, and this year’s shortlist appears to be no exception.