The Best Political Novels of 2025: The Orwell Prize for Fiction
From a book based on the actual love letters a British prime minister sent to his mistress in the run-up to World War I, to a fantastical tale that takes its cue from the Epic of Gilgamesh, there's a wide variety of novels to choose from on the shortlist of this year's Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. The comments are from the judging panel, chaired this year by British novelist Jim Crace.
The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, set up in 2019, “rewards outstanding novels and collections of short stories, first published in the UK or Ireland, that illuminate major social and political themes, present or past, through the art of narrative.”
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The judges of the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
The judging panel of the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction was chaired by Jim Crace, author of Harvest and Quarantine. He was joined on the panel by award-winning writer Anita Sethi, FT journalist Laura Battle, and Matthew Beaumont, Professor of English Literature at University College London.
The judges of the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
The judging panel of the 2025 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction was chaired by Jim Crace, author of Harvest and Quarantine. He was joined on the panel by award-winning writer Anita Sethi, FT journalist Laura Battle, and Matthew Beaumont, Professor of English Literature at University College London.
