The Times has described the 2025 Booker Prize shortlist as “revenge of the middle-aged author” . If the phrase sounds derogatory, it isn’t meant that way: the review also describes the shortlist as “novels for grown-ups”, with the prize privileging “maturity over novelty” and supporting “unpretentious, old-fashioned literary fiction”.

This is reinforced by the Booker Prize website, which highlights the previous winner (Kiran Desai) and two previously shortlisted authors (Andrew Miller and David Szalay) on the list, while noting that all six authors have long-established literary careers .

A book prize should reward novelty, though – and the Booker is, after all, a book prize, not an author prize like the Nobel . But if novelty isn’t obvious from the authors themselves, it c

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