The International Booker Prize Longlist for 2025 has been announced. In truth, I normally focus a little more on the awards when the shortlist is announced, but it grabbed my attention this time because I am about the start reading The Vegetarian by Han Kang, which won the International Booker Prize in 2016.
Kang is a South Korean author, and her novel was translated into English by Deborah Smith. As someone who started eating a vegan diet in 2018, I am looking forward to reading a depiction of people's responses to the main character when she makes the same change to her diet.
This year's longlist is:
- 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 Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches
- 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 by Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott
- A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson
Of the books on this year's longlist, the one I am most interested in is Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda. I enjoy speculative and science fiction, and this one seems to combine both genres in a very intriguing way.
Taken from The Booker Prize's website, some of the notable observations on this year's longlist are:
- "13 authors making their International Booker Prize debut, including three with their first books and eight with their first English-language publications
- Three previously longlisted translators, including one who is nominated for a record-breaking fifth time
- A classic of queer literature, first published in Dutch 43 years ago, marking the longest gap between an original-language publication and International Booker Prize longlisting
- Big themes in compact form, with 11 out of the 13 books under 250 pages, and eight under 200
- Books translated from 10 original languages, including, for the first time, Kannada which is spoken by approximately 38 million people as a first language, and Romanian
- 11 independent publishers behind 12 of the titles on this year’s longlist – the highest number ever"
You can read extracts from the books on the Booker Prize's website.
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