Like writers of The Michigan Daily Book Review past, our fearless reviewers are once again tackling the Booker Prize Shortlist. Every year, six English-language books published in the UK and Ireland are nominated, and six Daily reviews follow. As our Booker season comes to an end, read our final predictions below!
— Cora Rolfes, Senior Arts Editor and Alex Hetzler, Books Beat Editor
Most confusing nomination: “Audition” by Katie Kitamura
Slightly esoteric and definitely ambitious, “Audition” by Katie Kitamura is a novel full of tension and intrigue that, while well-written, forces you to read between the lines a little too much. Although riddled with profound themes — three of which we dive into deeper in our full review — we believe the Booker-nominated novel ultimately falls short because of just how much room it leaves for interpretation. While leaving space for the imagination to run free is usually a positive and characterizing quality of literary fiction, we found that “Audition” said too little and omitted too much. Its craft proficiency and careful exploration of important themes certainly make it deserving of a nomination, but the contentious nature of these aforementioned shortcomings make us hesitant to predict a final win for Kitamura’s novel. While definitely still worth a read, we ultimately think there are other nominees that stand a better chance of taking home this year’s Booker Prize.
Managing Arts Editor Camille Nagy, Daily Arts Writer Graciela Batlle Cestero and Daily Arts Contributor Ava Emery can be reached at camnagy@umich.edu, gbatllec@umich.edu and avaemery@umich.edu, respectively.
Most hoops shot: “The Rest Of Our Lives” by Benjamin Markovits
Benjamin Markovits’ “The Rest of Our Lives” is a quietly cathartic exploration of discontent in middle age. The novel follows its apathetic protagonist, Tom Layward, as he goes on a road trip and contemplates making good on a decade-old promise to leave his cheating wife after their children leave for college. It’s a book that is ultimately concerned with purpose — how one is needed in a marriage, a family and in a community as they develop and change over time. Readers encounter familiar dilemmas of age: undiagnosed health issues, marital strife and tension, emotional repression and frustration with younger generations and new cultural norms. However, like we discuss in our full review, that is ultimately what this book is: repressed. Markovits raises these complex issues but refuses to commit to entirely confronting them. While the Booker Prize committee describes this entry as “pitch perfect, quietly exhilarating and moving,” we find it to be closer to timid, uncommitted and meandering. “The Rest of Our Lives” is certainly a well-written novel, and for those it is meant to speak to, it definitely will. But as for distinguishing it as the absolute best English novel of the year, we would have to respectfully decline.
Daily Arts Writers Awmeo Azad and Kathryn Hemmila can be reached at awmeo@umich.edu and khemmila@umich.edu, respectively.
Most disappointing entry: “The Land in Winter” by Andrew Miller
Set in the freezing English countryside, Andrew Miller’s novel, “The Land in Winter,” explores marital dissatisfaction and infidelity but struggles to penetrate the surface of its characters’ psyches. The book’s initial promise of nuanced storytelling and small-town intrigue is hampered by an unsatisfying narrative, which we discuss further in our full review. The author struggles to balance the novel’s four main cast members, with entire plotlines and characters falling to the wayside as the novel progresses. This jarring abandonment of certain aspects of the story would be acceptable if it resulted in an interesting plot, but instead the rest of the novel reads as an amalgam of clichés and half-baked narratives poorly tied together. While Miller’s prose momentarily shines through as delicate and enlightening, his writing more often reads as monotonous and burdensome. Considering the novel’s predictable plot, dull characters and confusing third act, it is difficult to picture this nominee winning the Booker Prize this year.
Daily Arts Writers Lorenzo Norbis and Ethan Rogers can be reached at lnorbis@umich.edu and ethanrog@umich.edu, respectively.
Most sprawling text: “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny” by Kiran Desai
Reaching across continents and through generations, Kiran Desai ambitiously explores themes of isolation and authenticity in “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny.” Despite its impactful message surrounding creative expression — which we discuss further in our full review — we believe that the story failed to measure up to its full potential. Desai intimately and attentively depicts the struggles of solitude that so many face today, yet we found the novel struggled to employ a singular genre effectively. There was a jarring genre shift toward magical realism in the final stretch of the book, diluting the complexity of the aforementioned themes. While the feeling of isolation is universal, somewhere in the midst of this epic she alienates her characters from readers as well. Ultimately, we think that the other nominees are less disordered and more likely to win this year.
Daily Arts Writer Meagan Ismail and Daily Arts Contributor Sofia Thornley can be reached at mismai@umich.edu and tsofia@umich.edu, respectively
Most likely to win: “Flashlight” by Susan Choi
Susan Choi’s “Flashlight” is a portrait of a family suffering through loss. The strongest aspect of the novel, however, comes from the larger social commentary shown through its focused characters and global setting. Choi’s narrative jumps through time to reveal not only the history of a family, but the untold stories of immigrants often lost as numbers in the pages of history books. It follows many perspectives — all of which cast doubt on the others — forcing the reader to engage with and embrace the novel for all its complexities, accepting that the characters are ever-changing. Like those outside of fiction, these characters are reflections of the experiences they collect over the course of their lives. For this reason, they are difficult and prickly but never truly unlikeable. Choi brings humanity into history as her writing details the influence of historical landscapes on families, and the irrevocable impacts that war and immigration have that many cannot seem to reckon with. “Flashlight” covers an incomprehensible expanse of geography and emotion, fostering the perfect environment for social and interpersonal discussion. For these reasons — and the many others we discuss in our full review — this is our predicted winner of the 2025 Booker Prize.
Daily Arts Writer Archisha Pathak and Estlin Salah can be reached at archpath@umich.edu and essalah@umich.edu, respectively.
Most deserving of a win: “Flesh” by David Szalay
The sparseness of David Szalay’s “Flesh” should not convince you — nor the Booker Prize committee — that this is a simple novel. Told mostly through dialogue and minimalist third-person descriptions, “Flesh” still manages to portray being human in all of its intimacy, loneliness and confusion without letting us get close enough to protagonist István to feel that we really know him. A series of vignettes across decades of István’s life, “Flesh” traces the rise of an Eastern European immigrant into the upper strata of British society at the turn of the 21st century, forcing its readers to confront how much control they really have over their dreams or their destinies. Despite the novel’s many strengths — described in our full review — this spare book seems likely to be overlooked for more tangled and ambitious projects, even if those fail to capture the coarseness of humanity in the same way “Flesh” does.
Daily Arts Writer Claire Rock and Daily Arts Contributor Elias Simon can be reached at rockcl@umich.edu and elmsimon@umich.edu, respectively.
