- - Sarah Jessica Parker Calls Choosing This Year’s Booker Prize Winner “A Real Agony”

Meredith GordonNovember 11, 2025 at 2:38 AM

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Sarah Jessica Parker is an avid reader and book enthusiast, even working her love of books and the library into storylines in Sex and the City and And Just Like That. Parker recently found out there’s heartache in being a book lover as one of the judges in this year’s Booker Prize in Fiction.

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The most prestigious award for fiction writers, this year’s Booker Prize winner was announced Monday, November 10, with much fanfare and celebration. While the winning writer scores a prize of about $67,000, winning the Booker Prize means more than money. Winning the Booker Prize can often mean increased book sales, film adaptations, and critical acclaim that is usually met with higher advances and more prestige in the future of one’s career.

Parker was part of a panel of five judges, who read each submitted work in full and deliberated to choose a winner. Eligible English-language fiction published in the UK or Ireland between October 1, 2024, and September 30, 2025, could be considered for the 2025 prize. Publishers submit eligible books, and the judging panel reduces the choices to a long list of 12 to 13 titles (sometimes referred to as the “Booker Dozen”), followed by a shortlist of six finalists.

Parker detailed the process of narrowing down the list, telling The Independent, “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.”

Related: Two Amazon Standout Books Also Named Barnes & Noble's 2025 Best Book of the Year Finalists

2025 Booker Prize Winner in Fiction

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David Szalay’s Flesh was announced Monday as the winner of this year’s Booker Prize in Fiction. Szalay’s novel follows the life of a Hungarian immigrant. Judges said of Szalay’s book, “We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read.”

Fans of Flesh were quick to comment on this year’s choice, with one writing, “This novel completely captivated me from start to finish! Congratulations!”

Another added, “What a book.”

Related: Reese Witherspoon Names Her Favorite Book of 2025: ‘That One Made Me Cry’

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”