On Tuesday 25th February, the world's most influential award for translated fiction, the International Booker Prize, has announced its 2025 longlist. 

What is the International Booker Prize?

The International Booker Prize showcases the vital work of translation. The winner of the annual prize is awarded £50,000 divided equally between the winning author and translator/s. 

Alongside the longlist announcement, the Booker Prize Foundation has launched its International Booker Prize 2025 campaign. Titled 'A feast of fiction from around the world' the campaign will feature a series of engaging videos to introduce readers to the books and the judges. 

2025 International Book Prize Judges

The 2025 judging panel is chaired by the bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter. Joining Porter on this year's panel is Caleb Femi, prize-winning poet, director and photographer; Wasafiri Publishing Director Sana Goyal; Anton Hur, the International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator; award-winning singer-songwriter Beth Orton. 

2025 International Booker Prize Longlist

Narrowed down from 154 books submitted by publishers, this year's longlist consists of 13 books - 11 novels and two collections of short stories. The selection celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories that have been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. Books eligible for the longlist must be published between 1st May 2024 and the 30th April 2025. 

The 2025 book selections range in themes from sexual desire and disability to the disappearance of Palestinian people, witty short stories chronicling the lives of a group of Mexican women. The big themes covered are into short books with 11 books on the longlist coming in under 250 pages; with the shortest one 97 pages.

The full International Book Prize 2025 longlist is:

The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated by Sinan Antoon

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated by Barbara J. Haveland

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

Solenoid by Mircea Cărtărescu, translated by Sean Cotter

Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated by Julia Sanches; Heather Cleary

Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated by Polly Barton

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

Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated by Daniel Bowles

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes

Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi

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

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