Andrew Miller is the bookmakers' favourite to win the 2025 Booker Prize, which will be announced on Monday evening in London. The English author tops the William Hill odds at 6/4 for his novel The Land in Winter, set in 1960s England and exploring two marriages affected by class divisions and emotional estrangement. Miller was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 2001 for Oxygen.
Kiran Desai is Miller's closest rival at 2/1 for The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, her first novel in nearly two decades. The nearly 700-page book follows two young Indians navigating life in the US around the turn of the millennium. Desai won the Booker in 2006 for The Inheritance of Loss; a second win would make her the fifth author to claim the prize twice, joining JM Coetzee, Peter Carey, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel.
Hungarian-British writer David Szalay has seen a late surge in betting, with Flesh shortening to 9/4 from 4/1. The novel charts one man's rags-to-riches story across several decades, set between Hungary and London. The rest of the shortlist includes Susan Choi's Flashlight, Katie Kitamura's Audition, and Ben Markovits's The Rest of Our Lives.
“This year’s Booker prize remains an open race ahead of Monday’s announcement, with Andrew Miller edging Kiran Desai as the favourite at 6/4,” said William Hill spokesperson Lee Phelps. “This year’s field is looking remarkably tight, with little to split the six contenders.”
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize is awarded annually for the best original novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. The winner receives £50,000. A total of 153 novels were submitted for this year's award, judged by a panel chaired by Irish writer Roddy Doyle and featuring actor Sarah Jessica Parker, among others.
