Booker Prize shortlist choice was agony, says Sarah Jessica Parker

The Booker Prize judges (left-right): Roddy Doyle, Kiley Reid, Chris Power, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and Sarah Jessica Parker

Actress Sarah Jessica Parker has said she and the other judges of this year's Booker Prize had "real agony" deciding which novels to include on the shortlist, but taking part in the process has been a "privilege".

The Sex and the City star is among the five judges who have whittled down the 13-strong longlist to the six books that will compete for the prestigious literary award.

The shortlist includes Indian-born author Kiran Desai, 19 years after she won the prize, as well as past nominees Andrew Miller and David Szalay.

A trio of US writers - Susan Choi, Katie Kitamura and Ben Markovits - will also be up for the prize when the winner is announced in November.

Booker Prize 2025 shortlist:

Susan Choi - Flashlight

Choi's sixth novel starts with a 10-year-old girl taking a walk on a beach with her father, then waking up alone on the shore, with her dad presumed drowned. As she tries to piece together what happened, the story jumps across generations and locations, from Japan to America and North Korea.

The judges said it's "a family drama and geopolitical thriller about a fascinating episode from history", adding: "This is one of those books that completely dominates your thoughts."

Kiran Desai - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny

Desai won the Booker for The Inheritance of Loss in 2006, and is back with its long-awaited follow-up. Its 650 pages deliver an epic tale about love, ambition, family and belonging after two Indian writers who have settled in the US reconnect on an overnight train.

The judges called it "an intimate and expansive epic about two people finding a pathway to love and each other", adding: "Rich in meditations about class, race and nationhood, this book has it all."

Katie Kitamura - Audition

The fifth novel by Kitamura is narrated by an actress who meets a man claiming to be her son, with overlapping narratives that blur the lines of the characters we play and reality. Barack and Michelle Obama's production company are making a film version starring Lucy Liu.

The judges said it's "a brilliantly tense, taut novel that sees an actress's life turned inside out and leaves a lot open to interpretation", adding: "What's real? Audition makes existential detectives of us all."

Ben Markovits - The Rest of Our Lives

A middle-aged man leaves his home and marriage and goes on a road trip after dropping off his daughter at university. It's the 12th novel by the UK-based American writer, who was once a professional basketball player in Germany.

The judges said: "A road trip chronicle, a book about sickness, a basketball novel, a family saga, and a story about how we say goodbye, with a ridiculously relatable narrator."

Andrew Miller - The Land in Winter

Miller, from Bristol, was last nominated for Oxygen in 2001, and is shortlisted again for this novel about two couples, with two pregnant women, whose lives unravel during a ferocious winter storm in the West Country in 1962.

The judges said: "A novel about how to live, and about the tensions within marriages, set against the most dramatic winter in living memory. It's a joy to read, a nerve-shredding pleasure."

David Szalay - Flesh

The British-Hungarian writer's sixth novel follows the twists and turns as a shy 15-year-old boy from a Hungarian housing estate becomes a driver and security guard for London's ultra-rich. Szalay was previously nominated for All That Man Is in 2016.

The judges said: "A novel about class ascension and a man who is remarkably detached from his desires, and a disquisition on the art of being alive. It is also an absolute page-turner."

Samantha Harvey won last year's Booker Prize for Orbital

Seven books from the longlist missed the cut. They were by Claire Adam, Tash Aw, Natasha Brown, Jonathan Buckley, Maria Reva, Benjamin Wood and Ledia Xhoga.

Parker said there were tough decisions about which books to lose from the longlist. "I think it's real agony. There's nothing casual about letting a book go," she said. "I think we all had a couple of books that our heart was broken [to lose]."

The judges used a traffic light system to rate all 153 books they read over eight months - green, amber and red, depending on what they thought of them.

"It's the most exciting day of the year every single time you get to the traffic lights," Parker said. "It's like, you can't sleep the night before. It's so exciting."

She added that it was a privilege to have early access to so many new novels. "I can't even describe adequately what it feels like to have an author's book in your hand, sometimes a very highly regarded established author whose book is not out yet.

"And you know that you would be the envy of everybody if they knew that you were holding this book. And you got to read it early, and you got to talk about it with people who are so learned and themselves such extraordinary writers."

The jury is chaired by former Booker winner Roddy Doyle and also includes writers Kiley Reid, Chris Power and Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on 10 November.