2025 International Award

In Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq's years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women's rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it's in her characters - the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost - that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style.
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Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025 In Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women’s rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it’s in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well India’s most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.

A quintessential early novel about an intense friendship, by the winner of the 2020 Prix Goncourt de la nouvelle. SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE A Leopard-Skin Hat may be the French writer Anne Serre’s most moving novel yet. Hailed in Le Point as a “masterpiece of simplicity, emotion and elegance,” it is the story of an intense friendship between “the Narrator” and his close childhood friend, Fanny, who suffers from profound psychological disorders. A series of short scenes paints the portrait of a strong-willed and tormented young woman battling many demons, and of the narrator’s loving and anguished attachment to her. Anne Serre poignantly depicts the bewildering back and forth between hope and despair involved in such a relationship, while playfully calling into question the very form of the novel. Written in the aftermath of the death of the author’s little sister, A Leopard-Skin Hat is both the celebration of a tragically foreshortened life and a valedictory farewell, written in Anne Serre’s signature style.

A New York Times Notable Book of 2025 A 2025 International Booker Prize Shortlist Nominee Longlisted for the 2025 National Book Award for Translated Literature Winner of AIRMAIL's Inaugural Tom Wolfe Literary Prize for Fiction A scathing, provocative novel about contemporary existence by a rising star in Italian literature. Anna and Tom, an expat couple, have fashioned a dream life for themselves in Berlin. They are young digital "creatives" exploring the excitements of the city, freelancers without too many constraints, who spend their free time cultivating house plants and their images online. At first, they reasonably deduce that they've turned their passion for aesthetics into a viable, even enviable career, but the years go by, and Anna and Tom grow bored. As their friends move back home or move on, so their own work and sex life—and the life of Berlin itself—begin to lose their luster. An attempt to put their politics into action fizzles in embarrassed self-doubt. Edging closer to forty, they try living as digital nomads only to discover that, wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same." Perfection—Vincenzo Latronico's first book to be translated into English—is a scathing novel about contemporary existence, a tale of two people gradually waking up to find themselves in various traps, wondering how it all came to be. Was it a lack of foresight, or were they just born too late?

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE From one of Japan's most brilliant and sensitive contemporary novelists, this speculative fiction masterpiece envisions an Earth where humans are nearing extinction, and rewrites our understanding of reproduction, ecology, evolution, artificial intelligence, communal life, creation, love, and the future of humanity In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of "Mothers." Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings--but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world. Unfolding over fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological eons, at once technical and pastoral, mournful and utopic, Under the Eye of the Big Bird presents an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it.
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In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of the Mothers. Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the race depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings - but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world. Unfolding over geological eons, Under the Eye of the Big Bird is at once an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it and a meditation on the qualities that, for better and worse, make us human.

November 2021: an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants from France to the UK capsizes in the Channel, causing the deaths of 27 people on board. How and why did it happen? Despite receiving numerous calls for help, the French authorities wrongly told the migrants they were in British waters and had to call the British authorities for help. By the time rescue vessels arrived on the scene, all but two of the migrants had died. The narrator of Delecroix’s fictional account of the events is the woman who took the calls. Accused of failing in her duty, she refuses to be held more responsible than others for this disaster. Why should she be more responsible than the sea, than the war, than the crises behind these tragedies? A shocking, moral tale of our times, Small Boat reminds us of the power of fiction to illuminate our darkest crimes.

A probing masterpiece-in-miniature of self-reflection and cultural reckoning.
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'Odd and evocative, a frolicking rumination' TIMES CRITICS' BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR'Hilarious, unsettling and unexpectedly moving' FINANCIAL TIMES BEST TRANSLATED BOOK OF THE YEAR'Astonishing and captivating' KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD'There's a refreshing, bright moral clarity to Eurotrash' NELL ZINK Realising he and she are the worst kind of people, a middle-aged man embarks on a dubious road trip through Switzerland with his eighty-year-old mother, recently discharged from a mental institution. Driving across the country, they attempt to give away her arms-industry wealth, but a fortune of such immensity is hard to squander. Haunted in different ways by the figure of her father, an ardent supporter of Nazism, mother and son can no longer avoid delving into the darkest truths about their past.Eurotrash is an unsparingly funny, vertiginous mirror-cabinet of familial and historical reckoning, a tragicomic quest punctuated by the tenderness and spite meted out between two people who cannot escape one another. 'Christian Kracht is the great German-language writer of his generation' Joshua Cohen'Resonant and spiky' Daily Mail'Brilliantly caustic' i paperTRANSLATED BY DANIEL BOWLES
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'Odd and evocative, a frolicking rumination' TIMES CRITICS' BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Hilarious, unsettling and unexpectedly moving' FINANCIAL TIMES BEST TRANSLATED BOOK OF THE YEAR Realising he and she are the worst kind of people, a middle-aged man embarks on a dubious road trip through Switzerland with his eighty-year-old mother, recently discharged from a mental institution. Driving across the country, they attempt to give away her arms-industry wealth, but a fortune of such immensity is hard to squander. Haunted in different ways by the figure of her father, an ardent supporter of Nazism, mother and son can no longer avoid delving into the darkest truths about their past. Eurotrash is an unsparingly funny, vertiginous mirror-cabinet of familial and historical reckoning, a tragicomic quest punctuated by the tenderness and spite meted out between two people who cannot escape one another. 'Christian Kracht is the great German-language writer of his generation' Joshua Cohen 'Astonishing and captivating' KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD 'There's a refreshing, bright moral clarity to Eurotrash' NELL ZINK TRANSLATED BY DANIEL BOWLES
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Esta aclamada y disparatada novela, finalista del premio más importante de Alemania, tiene por narrador al alter ego de Christian Kracht, un escritor y dandy que emprende un viaje por carretera junto a su madre alcohólica y semipsicótica. Llevan consigo una bolsa llena de dinero en efectivo que se proponen regalar a destajo por todo el país. Es la escandalosa suma que han heredado de su familia nazi, y que ha sido invertida durante años en la industria armamentista. ¿Quizá despojarse de esa riqueza es despojarse de la gran vergüenza europea del siglo xx? De la culpa transgeneracional y de los horrores de la guerra que aún permanecen en nuestra sociedad; o tal vez, para ellos, tan solo se trata de exorcizar los demonios internos de la familia, cuya historia, en todo caso, se cruza repetidamente con la de Alemania. Con lucidez y asombrosa profundidad metafísica, Kracht trenza en Eurotrash los hilos de la memoria de todo un continente en la sencilla crónica de un vínculo roto que busca reconstruirse. Un relato conmovedor, tan desgarrador como cómico, que reflexiona sobre la verdad y la conciencia, una sátira contemporánea de primer nivel que nos habla sobre el poder curativo de las palabras y los escombros de una historia que siempre amenaza con repetirse.
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Sveitsiläinen kirjailija ja dandy Christian Kracht (s. 1966) lähtee impulsiiviselle taksimatkalle Alppimaan maaseudulle ja ylös vuoristoon mielenterveydeltään järkkyneen, älyllisesti nerokkaan 80-vuotiaan äitinsä kanssa, joka on riippuvainen viinistä, vodkasta ja pillereistä. Kaksikolla on muovikassillinen rahaa käytettäväksi, himo tiettyyn kalaruokaan, tarve nähdä alppikukkia ja afrikkalaisia seeproja ja löytää ennen kaikkea toisensa vuosikymmeniä jatkuneen syvän konfliktinsa jälkeen. Molempien sisintä painaa lisäksi tietoisuus siitä, että he tulevat liian rikkaaksi ehtineestä itsepetoksellisesta nousukassuvusta, jonka 1900-luvun muistot sisältävät paitsi kuvataiteen menetettyjä aarteita, myös omakohtaisia kauheuksia; natsimenneisyyttä, sadomasokismia, seksuaalista hyväksikäyttöä, koko rahaa palvoneen suvun laajuudelta. Kroisokseksi tulleen ja tuhkapussissa Elbe-jokeen päätyneen pojan isän, äidin edesmenneen puolison, puolelta yhteiskunnallinen kiipeäminen liittyy myös legendaariseen saksalaiseen kustantajaan ja lehtikeisariin Axel Springeriin, jonka läheisenä avustajana isä työskenteli toisen maailmansodan jälkeen. Teoksen synkistä teemoista huolimatta kokonaisuudesta rakentuu unenomaisen kirkas, apokalyptinen hymni anteeksiannon voimalle; loputtoman älyllisyytensä keskellä poika ja äiti tunnistavat keskinäisen rakkautensa, jota koetut skismat, saati viha mennyttä kohtaan, eivät ole sammuttaneet. Sillä voimalla molempien elämät voivat jatkua; niin kirjailijapojan elämä Sveitsissä, jonka tämä kokee poliittisine luurankoineen, pankkitileineen ja asukkaidensa itserakkauksineen yhteiskunnallisena tragikomediana, kuin äidin elämä saavuttamassaan Afrikassa - seeprojensa keskellä.
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»I'll see you in twenty-five years.« Laura Palmer. »Also, ich musste wieder auf ein paar Tage nach Zürich. Es war ganz schrecklich. Aus Nervosität darüber hatte ich mich das gesamte verlängerte Wochenende über so unwohl gefühlt, dass ich unter starker Verstopfung litt. Dazu muss ich sagen, dass ich vor einem Vierteljahrhundert eine Geschichte geschrieben hatte, die ich aus irgendeinem Grund, der mir nun nicht mehr einfällt, ›Faserland‹ genannt hatte. Es endet in Zürich, sozusagen auf dem Zürichsee, relativ traumatisch.« Christian Krachts lange erwarteter neuer Roman beginnt mit einer Erinnerung: vor 25 Jahren irrte in »Faserland« ein namenloser Ich-Erzähler (war es Christian Kracht?) durch ein von allen Geistern verlassenes Deutschland, von Sylt bis über die Schweizer Grenze nach Zürich. In »Eurotrash« geht derselbe Erzähler erneut auf eine Reise – diesmal nicht nur ins Innere des eigenen Ichs, sondern in die Abgründe der eigenen Familie, deren Geschichte sich auf tragische, komische und bisweilen spektakuläre Weise immer wieder mit der Geschichte dieses Landes kreuzt. »Eurotrash« ist ein berührendes Meisterwerk von existentieller Wucht und sarkastischem Humor.

LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD AND THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE • A bombshell bestseller in Japan, a defiant, darkly funny debut novel about a young woman in a care home seeking autonomy and the full possibilities of her life—“not only a major achievement in disability literature but great literature period” (Johanna Hedva) “A literary phenomenon in Japan, Hunchback is an extraordinary and thrilling debut novel about sex, disability, and power.”—International Booker Prize Judges “Unforgettable . . . a thriller of the body . . . [a] miracle.”—The New York Times Book Review Born with a congenital muscle disorder, Shaka spends her days in her room in a care home outside Tokyo, relying on an electric wheelchair to get around and a ventilator to breathe. But if Shaka’s physical life is limited, her quick, mischievous mind has no boundaries: She takes e-learning courses on her iPad, publishes explicit fantasies on websites, and anonymously troll-tweets to see if anyone is paying attention (“In another life, I’d like to work as a high-class prostitute”). One day, she tweets into the void an offer of an enormous sum of money for a sperm donor. To Shaka’s surprise, her new nurse accepts the dare, unleashing a series of events that will forever change Shaka’s sense of herself as a woman in the world. Hunchback has shaken Japanese literary culture with its skillful depiction of the physical body and its unrepentant humor. Winner of the prestigious Akutagawa Prize, it’s a feminist story about the dignity of an individual who insists on her right to make choices for herself, no matter the consequences. Formally creative and refreshingly unsentimental, Hunchback depicts the joy, anger, and desires of a woman demanding autonomy in a world that doesn’t always grant it to people like her. Full of wit, bite, and heart, this unforgettable novel reminds us all of the full potential of our lives, regardless of the limitations we experience.

LONGLISTED for the 2025 International Booker Prize A debut collection of gritty, streetwise, and wickedly funny stories about Mexican women who fight, skirt, cheat, cry, kill, and lie their way to survival. “Life’s a bitch. That’s why you gotta rattle her cage, even if she’s foaming at the mouth.” In the linked stories of Reservoir Bitches, thirteen Mexican women prod the bitch that is Life and become her. From the all-powerful daughter of a cartel boss to the victim of transfemicide, from a houseful of spinster seamstresses to a socialite who supports her politician husband by faking Indigenous roots, these women spit on their own reduction and invent new ways to endure, telling their own stories in bold, unapologetic voices. At once a work of black humor and social critique, Reservoir Bitches is a raucous debut from one of Mexico’s most thrilling new writers.
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»Reservoir Bitches« erzählt hart, klug und mit viel schwarzem Humor aus dem Leben mexikanischer Frauen, die kämpfen, tricksen, lügen und töten, die alles tun, um zu überleben. Ob Narco-Braut, Hausfrau oder Influencerin in Luxury Fashion, ob Auftragskillerin, Prostituierte oder Kleinkriminelle, ob reich oder arm – Dahlia de la Cerdas Heldinnen in »Reservoir Bitches« sind Frauen, die jede Opferrolle ablehnen und die Lösung ihrer Probleme selbst in die Hand nehmen. Ihr Leben ist alles, nur nicht moralisch – aber Dahlia de la Cerdas Literatur will auch gar nicht moralisierend sein. Sie katapultiert uns beim Lesen in eine weit entfernte, aber sehr reale und oft gewalttätige Umgebung. Die kompromisslosen Stimmen der sehr unterschiedlichen Protagonistinnen verbinden sich in de la Cerdas faszinierendem Debüt zu einem wilden, vielschichtigen, immer wieder auch überraschend zärtlichen Porträt der mexikanischen Gesellschaft aus weiblicher Sicht. »›Reservoir Bitches‹ ist bitterböse Gesellschaftskritik und schwarze Komödie in einem – und das unüberhörbare Debüt einer der spannendsten neuen Autorinnen Mexikos.« Readings »Dieses harte, faszinierende und wahrhaftige Buch beschreibt ohne jede Selbstgefälligkeit die vielschichtige Realität junger Frauen in Mexiko.« El País

Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025, this critically acclaimed Arabic novel invites English readers into the complex lives of Palestinians living in Israel.
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Alaa is haunted by his grandmother’s memories of being displaced from Jaffa and becoming a refugee in her homeland after the Nakba. Ariel, Alaa’s neighbour and friend, is a liberal Zionist, critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza yet faithful to the project of Israel. When he wakes up one morning to find that all Palestinians have suddenly vanished, Ariel begins searching for clues to the secret of their collective disappearance. That search, and Ariel’s reactions to it, intimately reveal the fissures at the heart of the Palestinian question. Between the stories of Alaa and Ariel are the people of Jaffa and Tel Aviv – café patrons, radio commentators, flower-cutters – against whose ordinary lives these fissures and questions play out. Critically acclaimed in Arabic, spare yet evocative, intensely intelligent in its interplay of perspectives, The Book of Disappearance is an unforgettable glimpse into contemporary Palestine as it grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory.