The shortlist of six books – five novels and one collection of short stories – was chosen by the 2025 judging panel, chaired by bestselling Booker Prize-longlisted author Max Porter.

From the too-perfect interiors of a Berlin apartment to a terrifying journey across the English Channel; from patriarchal communities in southern India to a futuristic world at the limits of our imagination; the six shortlisted books place a huge variety of human experiences under the microscope.