"Brecht was against the catharsis of emotion that Aristotle once postulated as the purpose of dramatic art—to be moved to pity and fear in the theatre so as to expunge those dangerous feelings. Brecht didn’t want audience members cleansed of emotions. He wanted them to leave the theatre ready to start a riot."
Namwali Serpell
Even after thirty years of following prize shortlists I'm still compelled to moan about the books that didn't make it and wonder about the discussions that took place. It's quite a few years since I've attempted the majority of titles on any longlist and though my instincts and questions remain I'm a lot more philosophical these days…
The 2025 judges have given us a pretty good longlist: maybe not the exceptional one readers deserve but I've read a handful of novels I might not have otherwise and the list has definitely widened my horizons beyond the 'best of '24' roundups and 'books to look forward to in '25'.
My shortlist:
• The Ministry of Time - Kaliane Bradley
• All Fours - Miranda July
• Good Girl - Aria Aber
• The Safekeep - Yael van der Wouden
• Crooked Seeds - Karen Jennings
• The Dream Hotel - Laila Lalami
I've read eleven of the sixteen and I'm confident that I will love Strout's latest.
Briefly, my moany bit: what isn't on the list? I recently listened to a roundup of 2024 books by a popular podcaster. Julia Armfield's Private Rites was their 'Most Disappointing of the Year': "all atmosphere" apparently. Now I could label this person an idiot and vow never to listen again or I could accept that everything is subjective when it comes to reading opinions. I'll let you guess which path I'm taking. Three other extraordinary books that would have made my longlist would be The Alternatives by Caoilynn Hughes, Susan Barker's Old Soul and Michelle de Kretser's Theory and Practice, even before I discussed Erdrich, Savas, Shafak, Kushner, Rooney and more. A greater infusion of speculative elements would have helped the list to feel even more relevant.
I cannot speak for Dream Count, Amma, Somewhere Else and The Persians. My book budget only goes so far despite being a thoroughly irresponsible and spendthrift individual, and none are yet available from my public library. Moreover I'm not prepared to buy Adichie's books at the moment. Her comments on trans women are ill considered at best.
Briefly the books I've left out: Birding is two thirds of an exceptional novel. The writing is SO exciting. I appreciated its rage, love and finesse and I also felt thoroughly seen: Lydia is a fantastically realised character Nesting won me over completely despite my struggle with most social realism. On one hand the world is ALL the social realism I need and I also wonder if Ken Loach's well-meaning but preachy recent filmography has broken me. I suspect both novels will help a lot of women feel seen, understood and cared for: I hope a little bit of their courage and understanding will help me to fight this stupid world with renewed strength.
A Little Trickerie is hugely enjoyable, original and will get you thinking imaginatively about all sorts. If Crooked Seeds doesn't make it on the shortlist then I think I'd like it to be A Little Trickerie.
Fundamentally is a little disappointing. It is very funny in an acute, astringent kind of way especially when it throws barbs at all the cruel ironies of bureaucracy, corruption and colonial power. It's just a little too smug and broad. I don't generally enjoy novels that mix the sensibilities of popular fiction and literary fiction: they feel all askew and self-congratulatory, relying too much on plot. Others will enjoy and appreciate the voice of Nadia much more than me I'm sure.
Finally if I were thirty years younger I would have fallen in love with The Artist but I've seen it and read it before, and they were too many moments that felt manufactured.
The Shortlist
I'd read Bradley and van der Wouden last year. I hear folks - mainly 'literary fiction' readers - saying how much they 'enjoyed' The Ministry of Time but they say it with a small 'but' in their voice, a tone of condescension, as though it has little to say. It has a great deal to say and it does so artfully, with unusual sophistication and urgency. With The Safekeep I fell completely in love and unlike others, my devotion has endured and deepened through a second reading.
I can understand why some readers are put off by All Fours: there is an undeniable whiff of privilege about it and clearly some people have been put off by some of its explicit content (just read some of the reviews on Goodreads!). I found it revelatory and wise - not about sex or desire particularly, but about life, the universe and everything. Crooked Seeds is like a literary palate cleanser - weird for me to claim that about a book that is so dark but it's almost a bit old-fashioned. I had flashbacks to reading Nadine Gordimer thirty years ago. Anyway, it's electric.
I've only just finished The Dream Hotel and I'm still mulling it over. It's a very comprehensive book, which is obviously damning with faint praise: if you are thinking about the world critically and imaginatively then you’re going to find lots of your thoughts and questions in this book. Very little fiction can match up to the shock and horror of 2025 so what Lalami has created may not feel…enough? Instead it's subtle and understated: she has created a great cast of characters AND, unusually, a work to help us think about solidarity whilst incorporating the climate crisis. I am fascinated to see what the speculative community make of it and what lit-fiction readers will get out of it.
The find of the longlist is undoubtedly Aria Aber's Good Girl. This is an extraordinary book. Read it slowly. Give yourself little breaks away from Marlowe. Remember you are reading a bildungsroman, that you are on a journey with Nila. Imbibe its wisdom, skill and passion. Let it fill you up.
Now to read more of the International Booker longlist. Solenoid, here I come.
The full list in alphabetical order by author surname is:
- Good Girl by Aria Aber (published by Bloomsbury)
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (published by Sceptre, Hodder & Stoughton, Hachette)
- Somewhere Else by Jenni Daiches (published by Scotland Street Press)
- Amma by Saraid de Silva (published by Weatherglass Books)
- Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings (published by Holland House Books)
- All Fours by Miranda July (published by Canongate Books)
- The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami (published by Bloomsbury Circus, Bloomsbury)
- The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji (published by 4th Estate, HarperCollins)
- Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (published by 4th Estate, HarperCollins)
- Nesting by Roisín O’Donnell (published by Scribner, Simon & Schuster)
- A Little Trickerie by Rosanna Pike (published by Fig Tree, Penguin General, Penguin Random House)
- Birding by Rose Ruane (published by Corsair, Little, Brown Book Group, Hachette)
- The Artist by Lucy Steeds (published by John Murray, John Murray Press, Hachette)
- Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (published by Viking, Penguin General, Penguin Random House)
- The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (published by Viking, Penguin General, Penguin Random House)
- Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Publishing Group, Hachette)