As has been a tradition on this blog for five years, I have set out to read every shortlisted book with the aim of betting on what I believe could end up becoming the winner. I use some unconventional methods to decide the order I read the titles and keep a diary throughout the entire journey or, as I call it: marathon.
The preparation began on Tuesday 23rd September. Once I knew the shortlist, I printed out a sheet of paper with the covers on. Then, I woke up on Wednesday and began the journey...
Wednesday 24 September
I have now cut all the book covers into squares so I can place them into Spiky's old bowl. For those new to this, Spiky was my sister's family's dog. He passed away in 2022 and I have used his bowl as a tribute to him for these posts.
Oh, and below is Oreo. He was watching me as I cut the covers out of the sheet of paper with a 'what are you doing?' curious expression.
I have finally cut all of the covers out and have taken individual photos of each one to use once they're drawn. They've all been folded and placed into Spiky's bowl.
Okay, it's time to find out what I'm starting off with.
The first book I'll read, from the 2025 Booker Prize shortlist, is....
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai.
The blurb on the Booker Prizes website states that this novel is 'a spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years - an epic love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity.'
Wednesday 1 October
It has been exactly a week since I began reading the first book I pulled out of the bowl.
As of the time of writing this entry, I have read only 36% of the novel. I don't want to be negative before I've completely finished, but it seems that - despite spending a lot of time reading The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny - I am struggling to get anywhere with it.
There are a lot of characters and the two titular ones have still not met.
Tne frustration at not seeming to be getting anywhere with this book has led me to check out the page counts for each title on the shortlist.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the longest with six-hundred and eighty-eight pages.
Knowing that has been of some relief. Getting the largest book out of the way could be a blessing. Even if it doesn't seem like it right now.
I'll return in a week or when I finish this novel. Whichever comes first. At this rate, I'd bet on the former.
Wednesday 8 October
I still haven't finished The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.
As of the time of adding this entry to the diary, I have read eighty-five percent of the book. So, I'm getting there. Slowly!
This marathon has become a mountain. I don't know if I'll be able to finish reading all six titles by the ceremony.
Thursday 9 October
I have finally finished The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai.
If you've followed along this far, you'll know I struggled with this one. To get to the point: I detested it.
In the blurb I quoted on Wednesday 24 September, the novel is regarded as 'an epic'. I agree with that. It's an epic made up of countless Indian tropes thrown together to make a narrative. Actually, that should be 'narratives'.
I am aware that Kiran Desai is a former Booker Prize winner, so respect for that. But, I genuinely found this story of two lonely people linked, and mostly unlinked, to each other to be a chore to get through.
As I noted, it's packed with tropes. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny felt like those themes were just being thrown willy-nilly hoping for something to stick. We get it all - class structure, family structure, arranged marriages, Indians becoming Westernised, old India vs New India, Indian magic, interracial coupling, mental health, domination, gangs and more. Much more.
It had far too much going on in which ultimately made it seem like it was a whole lot of nothing.
⭐
Friday 10 October
Time to select the next book. It's going to be.....
..Flesh by David Szalay.
The Booker Prizes website states that Flesh is 'a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.'
Tuesday 14 October
Yes! This is more like it.
I thoroughly enjoyed Flesh by David Szalay.
It's a novel about the life of a Hungarian named Istavan. The story starts off in his home country where we see him as a young boy. He comes across as awkward and ends up in a relationship with a much older woman. That results in Istavan being somehow involved with the death of the woman's husband.
Each chapter jump is like a skip button, so we see Istavan removed from the previous situation and we learn - from little clues in the form of Szalay's narrative - how far we've moved on in Istavan's life.
To cut to the chase, Istavan finds himself working in London for a rich family. He then ends up married to the wife of that rich family and, by the novel's close, back home - alone - in Hungary.
The flow of this story was brilliant. I was gripped following the evolution of Istavan. It turned into a rise and fall kind of story, but I obviously didn't know that until its conclusion.
One thing I am sure will be criticised, but not by me - I should add, is the dialogue in this story.
Whenever Istavan talks to other characters, his speech comes off as dull. Often one-worded. I sense that those who may dislike Flesh will point that out. I saw it as a device used by Szalay to allow the reader to see the character as retaining his youthful awkwardness but shielded from the things he has lived through.
I don't even know if I'm doing enough justice. Let me put it like this - the critics will likely say that the dialogue in the book could make Istavan monotonous, but I don't.
It simply made him human.
Flesh is definitely the best Booker shortlisted book I've read so far. It didn't have a high bar to beat, obviously.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Wednesday 15 October
I watched a couple of YouTube reviews of Flesh this morning when I was killing some time before getting out of bed.
My assumptions turned out to be almost accurate. Both videos brought up the dialogue for Istavan and how his use of 'Okay' was almost as far as he would go when he talked to other characters. With that stated, they also - just like me - felt it added to the character even if it didn't add to the character (if that makes sense!).
Anyway, I have to move on now. It's time to choose the next book to read.
Here we go....
..it's going to be The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits.
According to the Booker Prizes website, this is 'an unforgettable road trip of a novel about a middle-aged academic whose marriage, career and body are failing him'.
My immediate thought after reading that blurb was 'David Lodge' who wrote a series of books about academics. Small World and Nice Work - two novels from Lodge's 'Campus Trilogy' - were shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984 and 1988 respectively.
Lodge passed away earlier this year, hence why he came to mind first.
Saturday 18 October
Well, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits was another enjoyable read from this year's shortlist. Two out of three isn't bad so far, is it?
Tom is a middle-aged lawyer whose wife - Amy - had an affair many years previous to our introduction to the characters. He had vowed to part ways with Amy once both their children had left home. We meet Tom, and the rest of his family, as their youngest child - Miriam (Miri) - is on her way to university, so Tom - now that in his mind is almost free - drives his daughter to her new life and then embarks on a road trip of his own meeting up with old friends and a girlfriend along the way.
The story circles back spectacularly by the end when Tom is diagnosed with cancer during one of his stops across America.
So, were we really seeing a guy have a middle-life crisis after all?!
I found the narration to be superb. It's written in the first person, but it comes across very cerebral as the character is conscious of his surroundings and tends to gently move away in a direction before immediately pulling back into focus. It felt like, to me, we were swimming in Tom's thoughts.
Very good, and the end was touching with Tom and Amy together again although it's open-ended as we're left with three potential ways it could turn out for the character following his diagnosis.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
***
Next up is...
...The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller.
On the Booker Prizes website, the blurb for this novel reads that it's 'A masterful page-turning examination of the minutiae of life and a dazzling chronicle of the human heart'.
I am officially halfway through the marathon mountain now.
Friday 24 October
Bearing in mind I have read four out of the six novels, so this opinion could change, I have a feeling The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller could be the winner.
The novel is a story about two neighbouring couples living in the West Country of England during the 1960s. One couple has a doctor as the patriarch while the other is a farmer. That kind of shows a difference between the couples already. However, the two ladies - in the respective relationships - build a bond of friendship over the fact they're both about to become mothers.
I suppose the main theme of this novel is isolation because of how the females find friendship from the isolation they encounter in their marriages. However, the overall isolation comes in the form of when the book is set: during the Big Freeze of 1963.
A lot happens in this story, but the atmosphere that Andrew Miller sets is quite stunning, to be fair. I know it might come across as hyperbole, but I did feel a chill at times as I saw how some of the characters were exposed to those temperatures.
Speaking of the characters - I found every single one to be interesting in their own unique ways. With dark pasts - and presents - that haunt them at key parts.
So, yes, I strongly believe this could be the one which wins out. The stronger characters and atmospheric sensation does it for me.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
With all that said, I still have two novels to go.
* * *
We'll obviously know which books are fifth and sixth once this one is picked. Here's number five...
Susan Choi's Flashlight. The Booker Prizes website states that it's 'a thrilling, globe-spanning novel that mines questions of memory, language, identity and family'.
I shuddered when I read that blurb. It must be the PTSD after reading The Loneliness of Sonia and Sammy.
Monday 27 October
As you can witness directly above, when I read the blurb for Flashlight by Susan Choi, I couldn't help but consider it an equal, of sorts, to its shortlist competitor - The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.
In a way, there are similar themes in that both could be considered 'epics' spent crossing different periods of time, passing over different continents even, and also about identity.
With that said, Flashlight is superior.
The novel focuses on the family of Serk, who vanishes whilst going on a walk across a beach with his daughter - Louisa. Through the narrative, we learn that Serk is originally from Korea, but finds himself moving to Japan and then the US. His nationality becomes critical to the plot.
The other main characters are Louisa (obviously!), Anne (Louisa's mother) and Tobias (Anne's son and half-brother of Louisa).
As noted, the story covers a depth of time. It starts in the 70s, but then jumps back to the 40s and - by its conclusion - is close to modern day.
Unlike the first novel I read from the shortlist, I found the characters to be more likeable even though - at times - I felt the story to be equally slow in comparison to Kiran Desai's work.
So, yes, Flashlight is the better of the two, but not by much.
With that said - even though I thought the execution to be plodding at certain points, the subject matter is fascinating. It is provoking enough to be something I could see winning in a fortnight.
⭐⭐
***
If you've been paying attention, you'll know what's next. The last book I'll read from the shortlist will be....
..Audition by Katie Kitamura.
I believe this is the shortest book on this year's list consisting of two hundred and eight pages. Therefore, I pulled out the longest (688 pages) in the first draw and book-ended it with the shortest.
We also closed (or will close) with the two books featured in the photo with Oreo above. They were the first two covers I cut out of the printout for the draws.
As for the Booker Prizes' website's blurb - it reads that Audition is an 'exhilarating, destabilising novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love'.
Thursday 30 October
I found Audition by Katie Kitamura to be quite strange. Not in a bad way, though. I found it peculiar in a good sense.
The novel is about an actress. When we first meet her, she is at a restaurant for a rendezvous with a younger male who believes he is her son. To cut to the chase, the narrator makes it clear to both Xavier and the readers that there is no way she could have birthed him.
Along with Xavier, another main character - introduced early to the story - is the narrator's husband, Tomas.
In the second part, things are thrown all over the place because it begins with the couple welcoming Xavier into the apartment. We see that Xavier is the narrator's son after all.
And then - as if Xavier is the narrative's disruptor of sorts - we are welcomed to Hana, who is Xavier's partner.
The introduction of Hana made this even more of a surreal novel because it increased how anarchic the story had twisted between parts one and two.
With this being a book set around an actress and her surroundings, added in that the novel is structured in two parts (like a play), it made me wonder what is meant to be real and what is meant to be a performance.
Or was it all a performance?!
I might even be way off with how I interpreted it. That's not a negative, in my opinion. It makes the novel all the more intriguing.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
* * *
Now that I've read all of the books on the shortlist, it's time to do a ranking before I attempt to visit the betting markets for the first time..
With five stars, the top book on the list is Andrew Miller's The Land in Winter. As I wrote in the review, I felt it was extremely atmospheric and closed in. Reading it was an experience. That sensation was enough for me to give the full amount of stars I could give it on Good Reads.
David Szalay's Flesh is a very close second. The structure, with each chapter passing significant time and with the readers' job to piece things together what has happened in the interim was a brilliant technique. I also loved how guarded the character of Istavan is. It seems like he's a one-dimensional character but, as I said above, that was enough to make him layered.
I feel it's close between Audition and The Rest of Our Lives. Of the two, I'd have to side with Audition because of how it left me thinking it could be interpreted in different ways. The Rest of Our Lives had an open-ended conclusion, so us readers also left that one with our own ideas, though.
As you can see in the table, both of the lowest scoring titles have the better Good Reads averages with The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny currently holding 3.95 while Flashlight is the closest with 3.91.
I see two bottom novels as somewhat similar in minor ways. However, I thought The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny was the most obnoxious of the two because it dragged and dragged. Then dragged some more.
Now, I'll visit the betting to see where things currently stand.
OH MY GOSH.
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sammy is the favourite. Wow.
It's good to see The Land in Winter as the second-favourite, though. Flesh, with a best price of 7/1, appeals to me.
Saturday 1 November
I haven't bet on any of the books. I'm unsure whether I will this year. Once again, I'm burdened by the fact that I have trouble with Ladbrokes/Coral and they are offering the top price for The Land in Winter. I don't want to place a 2/1 bet knowing I could get it for 3s with other firms. So, I'm going to sit it out.
Flesh at 7/1 is a bet I could make, if I wished. However, I would prefer to also have a wager on The Land in Winter as well because those are my top two.
If I end up gambling, I'll publish an update. It'll be on both of those titles.
This post has now gone live and will float around through to the day/night of the ceremony. Keep checking back for more updates.
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