Why judge Sarah Jessica Parker says choosing the novel was ‘real agony’

On Monday, author David Szalay won the 2025 Booker Prize in fiction, one of literature’s most prestigious awards, for his sixth novel, Flesh. The author accepted the award, for fiction written in English and published in the U.K. and Ireland, from Samantha Harvey — who won last year for her novel Orbital — during a ceremony in London.

Flesh was selected unanimously from the Booker Prize’s panel, who chose the work after a six-hour discussion, Roddy Doyle, chair of the Booker judging panel, told the Independent. In addition to Doyle, author of The Commitments, the panel consisted of Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker as well as authors Chris Power, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and Kiley Reid.

Szalay, a Canadian Hungarian British author, was previously short-listed for the award for his 2016 work, All That Man Is, told via short stories. His latest novel tells the story of Hungarian teenager István, whose life takes unexpected turns as he navigates tragedy, love and trauma. Like much of Szalay’s fiction, it offers a sharp examination of masculinity.

In addition to Flesh, the books that made this year’s short list were Flashlight by Susan Choi, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai, Audition by Katie Kitamura, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovitz and The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller. Unlike in previous years, when debut authors were in contention for the prize, all the authors on the 2025 short list are established names who have published multiple books.

In an interview with the Independent, Booker Prize panelist Parker said that it was difficult to select this year’s short list.

“I think we all came to that meeting with a certain amount of worry about how we would take care of these authors and that we knew we could only have six,” she said, calling it a “real agony” to choose. “There’s nothing casual about letting a book go. I think there was a sadness after this meeting, like genuine sadness about losing the opportunity to talk publicly about books that we thought were not just worthwhile but important. It was loss.”

Popular novelists who have won the Booker Prize in recent years include Margaret Atwood, who took home the prize for The Testaments, the sequel to her 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, which was adapted for Hulu in 2017. A series adaptation of The Testaments for Hulu is currently in the works. The prize was shared that year with Bernardine Evaristo, the first Black woman to win, for her book Girl, Woman, Other.

Booker Prize-winning novels have also gone on to be adapted into movies, such as 2002’s Life of Pi by Yann Martel, which became a film in 2012 and later a stage show, and 1992’s The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, which was adapted for the screen in 1996.