Kiran Desai returns to the spotlight as 2025 Booker Prize shortlist unveiled

Nearly two decades after winning the Booker Prize with The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai is back in the global literary spotlight. Her latest novel, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, has secured a place on the 2025 Booker Prize shortlist, announced by the judges at Fortnum & Mason in London.

The six finalists — Desai, Susan Choi (Flashlight), Katie Kitamura (Audition), Ben Markovits (The Rest of Our Lives), Andrew Miller (The Land in Winter), and David Szalay (Flesh) — reflect the ambition, diversity, and emotional range of contemporary fiction.

For Indian readers, the headline is clear: Desai’s return. The Indian-born author, celebrated for her distinctive voice and sharp social insight, weaves a “truly unforgettable epic” in The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny. The novel intertwines the love story of its titular characters with probing questions of class, race, nationhood, and migration.

“One of the reasons this book stands out is that it has so much going on,” the judges said. “Many characters, subplots, and places — yet all of it is woven together into one magnificent story.”

Other contenders push the boundaries of storytelling in equally compelling ways. Susan Choi’s Flashlight spans continents and generations, blending intimate family drama with geopolitical intrigue. Katie Kitamura’s Audition unsettles with taut, immersive prose, challenging readers to navigate blurred lines between reality and performance.

Ben Markovits explores the ripples of infidelity and estrangement in The Rest of Our Lives, while Andrew Miller revisits the harsh winter of 1962–63 in rural England in The Land in Winter, praised for its vivid characters and thrilling readability.

David Szalay’s Flesh dissects masculinity, alienation, and social mobility through the life of a Hungarian émigré in London, earning the judges’ acclaim as “a disquisition on the art of being alive — and an absolute page-turner.”

The shortlist combines continuity and renewal. Miller is a previous winner, Choi and Kitamura are rising American luminaries, and Markovits and Szalay offer contrasting approaches to contemporary British fiction. Yet it is Desai’s return that dominates the conversation, marking a re-entry to the global stage after years of quiet literary activity.

The 2025 Booker Prize winner, carrying a £50,000 prize and near-certain international recognition, will be revealed on November 14 at Old Billingsgate, London.