**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**

'A masterpiece, told with virtuosic economy. . . Pure brilliance from the first to the (devastating) last sentence' India Knight
'Brilliance on every page' Samantha Harvey
'Spare, visceral, urgent, compelling. This book doesn't f**k around' Gary Stevenson
'So brilliant and wise on chance, love, sex, money' David Nicholls

Through chance, luck and choice, one man's life takes him from a modest apartment in Hungary to the elite society of London - in this captivating new novel about the forces that make and break our lives

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour - a married woman close to his mother's age - as his only companion. As these encounters shift into a clandestine relationship, István's life spirals out of control.

Years later, rising through the ranks from the army to the elite circles of London's super-rich, he navigates the twenty-first century's tides of money and power. Torn between love, intimacy, status, and wealth, his newfound riches threaten to undo him completely.

'How do I get out of a reading slump? This is the book to do that' Rhianna Dhillon, BBC Radio 4

'A revelatory novel' Sunday Times

'So much searing insight into the way we live now' Observer

'Refreshing, illuminating and true' Financial Times

'Compelling and elegant, merciless and poignant' Tessa Hadley

'One of the year's best novels to date' Daily Mail

'Utterly engrossing and I read it all in a day' 5* reader review

'I was hooked and tried to read this book with any spare moment that I had' 5* reader review

A 'Best Book of 2025' in the Guardian, Observer, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025

A spellbinding story of two young people whose fates intersect and diverge across continents and years-an epic of love and family, India and America, tradition and modernity, by the Booker Prize-winning author of The Inheritance of Loss

When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated, yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that only served to drive Sonia and Sunny apart.

Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India, fearing she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the sweeping tale of two young people navigating the many forces that shape their lives: country, class, race, history, and the complicated bonds that link one generation to the next. A love story, a family saga, and a rich novel of ideas, it is the most ambitious and accomplished work yet by one of our greatest novelists.

'I wanted to pack a little suitcase and stay inside this book forever' Ann Patchett

Profound, sparkling, funny, exquisitely written, [The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny] teaches us how to live in full-throated exultation for the astonishments of this world' Lauren Groff

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**

'Ferociously smart and full of surprises' Eleanor Catton

'Instantly bewitching' Jennifer Egan

'A rich generational saga that teems with intelligence' Financial Times

The astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century, ranging from post-war Japan to suburban America and the North Korean regime

One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal Japanese town while her father Serk, a Korean émigré, completes an academic secondment from his American university. When Louisa wakes hours later, she has washed up on the beach and her father is missing, probably drowned.

The disappearance of Louisa's father shatters their small family unit. As Louisa and her American mother Anne return to the US, this traumatic event reverberates across time and space, and the mystery of what really happened to Serk slowly unravels.

'Big, bold and surprising' Guardian

'Engrossing. . . Choi is an astute, convincing writer' Sunday Telegraph

'Susan Choi is a master of rendering relationships with utter particularity' Raven Leilani, author of Luster

'I couldn't put it down, and once I finished, I couldn't stop thinking about it' Barbara Demick, author of Nothing to Envy