The International Booker Prize 2025 winner is here, marking the first time a collection of short stories grabs the prestigious prize.
Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq – translated by Deepa Bhasthi – is the 2025 International Booker Prize winner. Written over 30 years, 12 stories form an eloquent – but not glamourised – vignette of Muslim women living in southern India. Mushtaq explains “My stories are about women – how religion, society, and politics demand unquestioning obedience from them,” adding “my heart itself is my field of study. The most intensely the incidents affect me, the more deeply and emotionally I write”. This is the first time a collection of short stories – as well as ones originally written in Kannada – has won the prize, signifying a rise in translated literature both nominated for and winning the prize.
Plus, the Women’s Prize For Fiction shortlist has been released, with the winner set to be announced on 12 June 2025. Whittled down to six incredible reads per prize, there’s reason why these novels have been carefully selected by the judging panel out of the thousands published every year. Find out more about each shortlisted entry, and bookmark these page turners for the next time you’re lounging poolside or along a quiet beach.
Women’s Prize For Fiction 2025 Shortlist
The novel – American poet Aria Aber’s debut fiction book – narrates the coming of age of a young Afghan woman, Nila, as she navigates Berlin’s infamous nightlife. Love, loss, and self-discovery – it’s all packed into this brilliant book.
All Fours is Miranda July’s fourth novel, one which opens in the waiting room for a gynecologist appointment (familiar?!) as she sits around younger women, wondering what each one is thinking about. This clever novel is all about pursuing sexual freedom and creativity, after the protagonist has an extramarital affair during a road trip.
This book follows a multi-generational Iranian family who flee the US during the 1979 revolution, but specifically, The Persians follows the different generations of women within this family as the personal intertwines with the politics going on outside.
In Maine, the town lawyer Bob Burgess is defending a lonely man accused of killing his mother, while falling in love with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton. It seems that much can happen during one autumn in a small town in Maine.
World War II was fifteen years ago, and protagonist Isabel has built a quiet life for herself in the country, one governed by routine and self-set rules. However, when family and love get in the way, Isabel must learn what she can and can’t control.
Protagonist Nadia accepts a job working for the United Nations, rehabilitating ISIS women in Iraq. Religion, international aid, political tensions, radicalisation, all starts to swirl around Nadia's periphery as lines between professional and personal relationships blur. Fundamentally is funny, sharp, and very aligned with what's happening in the world now.
International Booker Prize 2025 Shortlist
Solvej Balle is one of Denmark’s favourite authors since self-publishing her first novel. This new release offers an unusual plot, as the protagonist falls through the cracks of time, stuck on November 18th, written via clever prose for a reworking of the well known Groundhog Day.
One small boat says a lot about the current crisis of humanity, as a boat carrying migrants from France to the UK capsizes. Based on a real life event from November 2021, this is a shocking moral tale that catches us between how we respond to fiction vs real life.
“What made me decide to write this book was the meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011,” says Kawakami. As much about the future as it is about the past, it still feels relevant to read now, despite only being translated into English ten years after it was published.
Vincenzo Latronico explains that with Perfection, he wanted to “tell a story set at the intersection between our physical and our digital lives”. Expat couple Anna and Tom are living what appears to be their dream life in Berlin, so how can what looks so perfect on the outside feel so empty?
This collection of twelve short stories by lawyer and activist Banu Mushtag documents the complex lives of Muslim women and girls living in southern India. Family dynamics, friendships, tensions, happy moments, each paint very real stories.
A story within a story, or a story about storytelling, in typical Anne Serre fashion A Leopard-Skin Hat rejects classic realism. An intense friendship forms the heart of this emotive novel, that paints a poignant picture of how we remember the ones important to us.
Lead image credit: Grand Hotel Tremezzo
We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.
Any Questions or Tips to add?