2025 Booker Prize Longlist Predictions

Once again Booker has rolled around. Every year our panel comes together to read and review all the booker nominees and to predict the winners. This year’s longlist will be announced on July 29. Every year we try and most years we fail spectacularly to get more than 3 correct predictions each. Will we have better luck this year? Keep reading to find out who we all selected and let us know what you think.

Judges are looking for the “best work of long-form fiction” (Booker website). Novels are eligible if they were published in the UK or Ireland between October 1 2024 and September 30, 2025 in English as the original language (no translated works). Entries must be submitted by publishers and not authors and there are limits to the number of books each publisher is allowed to submit which varies based on how many past books they have had longlisted (so major publishing houses will have more submissions). To learn more about the prize and the judges please visit the bookerprize.com.

And now onto our panel’s predictions. This year, we’ve added chatGPT predictions. Will our panel beat chatGPT? To read more about each book or to purchase a copy for yourself, simply click on the book title in our lists (please note that we receive a tiny fraction of any book purchased through these links. We use those funds for blog prizes and giveaways).

My (Jen) Predictions: I’ve done a fair bit of reading this year in preparation for the Booker longlist and I think there are some solid contenders out there. Admittedly, that never seems to help my accuracy but it’s been an enjoyable endeavor and I’ve discovered some new favorites. Here’s my list in no particular order:

• The Book of Records by Madeline Thien. I read this and while it took me a while to feel engaged in the story, it left me appreciating the author’s intelligence. Timely subject matter and beautifully written.
• Flesh by David Szlay.
• The Names by Florence Knapp
• Audition by Katie Kitamura.
• Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
• Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
• Theft by Abulrazak Gurnah
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
• Our evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
• We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwill Brown
• The South by Tash Aw

I normally would have added Dream Count by Adichie as she is one of my favorite authors and her books are commonly nominated for prizes, but I read it and it fell flat for me.

Tracy’s Predictions: I’ve been reading and thinking and DNFing a bit, too. Of course, I’m going about this all wrong. I’m thinking, when I should just be throwing darts- or having a randomizer pick. That would be safer.

• Audition by Katie Kitamura
• Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
• Endling by Maria Riva
• The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien
• This Immaculate Body by Emma Van Straaten
• The Hounding by Xenobe Purvis
• Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• The Tiger’s Share by Keshava Guha
• We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seely
• Juice by Tim Winton
• Necessary Fiction by Eloghosa Osunde
• A House for Miss Pauline by Diana McCauley
• The Dissenters by Youssef Rakha
  

Nicole’s Predictions:

• Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell
• Let Me Go Mad in My Own Way by Elaine Feeney
• Helm by Sarah Hall
• Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• Endling by Maria Riva
• We Pretty Pieces of Flesh by Colwell Brown
• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko
• Ghost Wedding by David Park
• The Tiny Things are Heavier by Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo
• Life Cycle of a Moth by Rowe Irvin
• Will There Ever Be Another You by Patricia Lockwood
• Spent by Alison Bechdel

I used to try really hard to accurately make predictions on the list, and I would read or attempt the books that the true Booker aficionados were reading, and evaluate and ponder, and the reality is that I was never going to predict Sabrina, The New Wilderness, Great Circle (all stinkers for me) … The fact that the judges change every year means the interpretation of a “Booker” book changes every year. There have been some absolute knockouts for me through the years so I’m typically happy to be wrong in my predictions. As much as I’d love Mothers and Sons to be on the list, I’m not sure I see that happening, and as much as I’d prefer NOT to see Audition on the list, I fear it may be (SJP). Alas, I eagerly await the 12 books I didn’t get right to be revealed to me.

Lisa’s predictions: I have fun looking through a list of possibilities and choosing books, some by authors I know, and some because they seem “Booker-ish.” I’ve only actually read one of them. I just finished Beautyland and it hit me hard.

• This immaculate Body by Emma Van Straaten
• Gliff by Ali Smith
• Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertimo
• The Antidote by Karen Russell
• A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemni
• Flashlight by Susan Choi
• The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
• The Book of Records by Madeline Thien
• The Names by Florence Knapp
• What We Can Know by Ian McEwan
• Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
• Let Me Go Mad in my Own Way by Ellen Feeney
• The Volcano DAughters by Gina Maria Balibrera

Anita’s predictions: I haven’t read that many of the eligible books this year, and half of those were not great. So the following list is more of a compilation of the books I really did love, the books I am so hoping will be there because I want to read them (mostly these), and a few “big name author” additions that seem almost inevitable.

• Audition by Katie Kitamura (Dying to re-read this so hope it’s there; sorry Nicole!)
• Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
• Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
• Gliff by Ali Smith
• The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey
• Good Girl by Aria Aber
• Mothers and Sons by Adam Hasslet
• The City Changes Its Face by Eimear McBride
• The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley
• The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
• Endling by Maria Reva
• The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
• Edenglassie by Melissa Lucashenko

ChatGPT’s predictions:

• Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
• Another Man in the Street by Caryl Phillips
• Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• I Want to Talk to You by Diana Evens
• A New New Me by Helen Oyeyemi
• Audition by Katie Kitamura
• Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn
• Flesh by David Szalay
• Twist by Colum McCann
• Room on the Sea by Andrew Aciman
• The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
• Helm by Sarah Hall
• The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien

As a collective group (excluding chatGPT) we predicted 43 unique books and no one book appeared on all lists.

We want to hear from you. What books did we miss? Who do you think has the best prediction list and why? Will chatGPT beat our judges?