These are novels of displacement, longing and radical introspection, stories that ask readers to listen closely.
What stands out is the international makeup: voices from Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, the Caribbean. The longlist leans into silences, slow revelations, inner transformation. It’s a curiously intimate offering from a prize often associated with high-concept drama. The judges appear to favour nuance over spectacle, resilience over resolution.
Highlights from the longlist include:
• Kiran Desai – The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny: A contemplative exploration of ageing and diaspora, told with aching sensitivity.
• Natasha Brown – Safe Harbour: A formally inventive meditation on race, womanhood and British identity.
• Maria Reva – Grey Bees: Surreal yet grounded, it captures post-Soviet disorientation with warmth and satire.
• David Szalay – Turbulence: Stories linked by flight paths and fleeting connections, rendered in exacting prose.
• Ledia Xhoga – The Empty House: A haunting debut from Albania, confronting memory and migration.
This is a longlist for readers who trust a book to whisper, not shout. It signals a renewed attention to voice, emotional range and literary quietude in a world of noise.
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