The shortlist for the prestigious international Booker Prize has been announced. Six novels, selected from 163 entries, have reached the final stage of the competition, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony at London’s Old Billingsgate on November 9. The winner will receive a prize of 50 thousand pounds, while each of the other finalists will be awarded 2500 pounds.
The finalists include writers from England, Scotland, the USA, and Jamaica. This year’s panel of judges was a distinctive group; led by British historian and broadcaster Mary Beard, the panel included poet Raymond Antrobus, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, critic Rebecca Liu, and writer Patricia Lockwood. According to Antrobus, each judge initially had their own shortlist, and the final selection was made following spirited debate.
Previous winners are also among the contestants. Jamaican novelist Marlon James won this award in 2015 with “A Brief History of Seven Killings”, while Scottish-American author Douglas Stuart won it in 2020 with his debut novel, “Shuggie Bain”. If either of them were to win again, it would mark the fifth time in the award’s history that an author has triumphed a second time. Elizabeth Strout is also known for her previous successes in the competition (making the longlist in 2016 and the shortlist in 2022), whereas Rebecca Perry stands out as the only new writer on this list.
The shortlisted works cover a variety of themes. While Douglas Stuart’s novel “John of John” explores family secrets on Scotland’s Isle of Harris, Marlon James’s work “The Disappearers” reveals the events and human destinies of Kingston in 1988. In her novel “The Things We Never Say”, Elizabeth Strout tells the story of a teacher grappling with a difficult internal choice. Additionally, M. John Harrison depicts post-apocalyptic Britain in his novel “The End of Everything”; Luke Kennard recounts the experiences of an actor who agrees to a bizarre experiment in “Black Bag”; and Rebecca Perry’s “May We Feed the King” describes the work of a museum curator restoring the interiors of medieval houses.
To briefly recap, David Szalay won the award in 2025 with his novel “Flesh”, while Samantha Harvey won in 2024 with her book “Orbital”.
