Each of the shortlisted six books explore the need for personal freedom and human connection, illustrating the ways in which autonomy, love, and friendship can act as a salve to life’s challenges. Written with nuance and depth, they offer compelling multi-layered stories that urge you to sit up and take notice of the world around you.
In this landmark year, the shortlist features multi-generational perspectives and a strong showing of fresh new voices. Thematically, the 30th Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist also spotlights novels which question history’s grip on our lives, alongside stories which navigate our prevailing search for identity. A number of the novels employ humour – from biting satire to nuanced observational comedy – to explore difficult issues surrounding cultural heritage. Queer relationships and emotional or sexual reawakenings through life are also a prominent theme.
The 2025 shortlisted titles for the Women’s Prize for Fiction are as follows (alphabetical by authors surname):
- Good Girl by Aria Aber (published by Bloomsbury Publishing)
- All Fours by Miranda July (published by Canongate Books)
- The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji (published by 4th Estate, HarperCollins)
- Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout (published by Viking, Penguin General, Penguin Random House)
- The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (published by Viking, Penguin General, Penguin Random House)
- Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Orion Publishing Group, Hachette)
Over the past three decades the Women’s Prize for Fiction has celebrated imaginative, accomplished novels year after year, and in doing so has helped change the landscape for fiction writing in the UK. Over the past six months, my fellow judges and I have been knee-deep in reading our submissions, consumed by the fully-realised worlds created by an incredible range of voices. Now that we arrive at the announcement of our shortlist, what seems absolutely apparent to me is how perfectly each of these six novels exemplify the original tenets of the Prize: originality, accessibility and sheer brilliance. Our selection celebrates rich, multi-layered narratives that will surprise, move and delight the reader, all drawing on, in different ways, the importance of human connection. What is surprising and refreshing is to see so much humour, nuance and lightness employed by these novelists to shed light on challenging concepts. I’m in no doubt that these six novels will become the classics of the future.
Kit de Waal, Chair of judges
The 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction Shortlist
