PVLF 2025

2025 International Booker Prize Longlist Features 13 Translations

The 2025 International Booker Prize longlist features 13 translated works, celebrating global literature and exceptional storytelling across cultures.
on Feb 27, 2025

Books translated from 10 original languages, including, for the first time, Kannada and Romanian

The 2025 International Booker Prize longlist was recently released. The 13-book longlist - 11 novels and two collections of short stories - was selected by the 2025 judging panel, led by Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter. The remaining judges are: poet, director, and photographer Caleb Femi; writer and Wasafiri publishing director Sana Goyal; writer and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Anton Hur; and singer-songwriter Beth Orton.

The list honors the finest works of long fiction or short story collections translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2024 and 30 April 2025, as determined by the 2025 panel. The judges chose from 154 books put forward by publishers - the most since the prize began in its current form in 2016.

The award acknowledges the essential contribution of translators with the £50,000 award money split equally: £25,000 for the writer and £25,000 for the translator (or split equally between translators). There is also a prize of £5,000 for each of the shortlisted books: £2,500 for the writer and £2,500 for the translator (or split equally between translators). The shortlist of six titles for the 2025 International Booker Prize will be revealed on Tuesday, 8 April. The winner will be revealed during a ceremony at London's Tate Modern on Tuesday, 20 May.

The longlist:

A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson

On a Woman's Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes

Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated from German by Daniel Bowles

Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton

Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson

Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches

Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter

There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert