From Roundabout Books’ newsletter:
[T]he 2025 longlist for The Booker Prize was announced, and since it’s one of my favorite literary lists, I thought I’d take this chance to pitch a Booker book for your late summer reading enjoyment. And yes – I said enjoyment.
Officially, the Booker prize is awarded to a work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland. But all the titles judged and chosen are some of the best examples of literary fiction being published today. Their themes explore some of our deepest fears and global concerns of the time. They take chances on character and style, prying open a new corner in our minds so that when we’re done reading them, we think a little differently and carry some new perspective on humanity. They feature some of the most beautiful writing and language you’ll read. So much so that they are often the opposite of page-turners, forcing you to slow down, re-read, underline, and marvel at the clarity one sentence can bring.
Some of my favorite books have been Booker Prize nominees or winners: Orbital by Samantha Harvey (winner 2024), Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (shortlist 2024), Playground by Richard Powers (longlist 2024), Prophet Song by Paul Lynch (winner 2023), This Other Eden by Paul Harding (shortlist 2023), The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng (longlist 2023), Trust by Hernan Diaz (longlist 2022), No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (shortlist 2021), Bewilderment by Richard Powers (shortlist 2021), Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead (shortlist 2021), Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (winner 2020), Apeirogon by Colum McCann (longlist 2020), Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (longlist 2019), Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (shortlist 2018), Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (winner 2017), Exit West by Mohsin Hamid (shortlist 2017), and The Sellout by Paul Beatty (winner 2016).
If you’re looking at this year’s longlist and don’t know where to start, here’s a snapshot of the ones I’ve read:
- Flashlight by Susan Choi traces a father’s disappearance across time, continents, and memory. One night, Louisa and her father take a walk on the beach, she wakes up soaking and confused, and he is missing, presumed drowned. It’s an ambitious but accessible family story, driven by a mystery, and exploring the impact of global politics on individual lives, and it will appeal to literary fiction readers as well as reading groups and book clubs. We chose this for the Roundabout Books June First Editions subscription box.
- Endling by Maria Reva is probably my favorite of the list I’ve read so far. Yeva is a loner and a maverick scientist who lives out of her mobile lab scouring the country’s forests and valleys to save the last of the species of rare snails. Nastia and her sister, Solomiya, are entangled in the booming Ukrainian marriage industry, posing as a hopeful bride and her translator while secretly searching for their missing mother. Together they embark on a journey: three angry women, a truckful of kidnapped bachelors, and Lefty, a last-of-his-kind snail with one final shot at perpetuating his species, but their plans come to a screeching halt when Russia invades Ukraine. As fiction and reality collide on the page, Reva probes the hard truths of war: What stories must we tell ourselves to survive? To carry on with the routines of life under military occupation? And for those of us watching from over-seas: Can our sense of normalcy and security ever be restored, or have they always been a fragile illusion?
- Audition by Kate Kitamura explores our performance roles in life and how they differ from, or deceive, our inner selves. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an elegant and accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, and young enough to be her son. Who is he to her – and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, and muse. This book is for readers looking for a unique, short, hypnotic read. We still have signed copies in stock.
The next book on the list I can’t wait to read is The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, which releases 9.23.25. The Booker calls it “a spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years – an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity.”–Cassie
You can browse books and follow Cassie’s recommendations (as well as Jenny’s, Sara’s, Julie’s, Kathy’s, Christine’s, Shay’s, Lillian’s, Ashley’s, and Emiliano’s Favorites) at the Roundabout Books website and in-store in Bend, OR.
