Fantasy novel about a world without Palestinians makes International Booker Prize 2025 longlist

The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem was first published in Arabic in 2014 before being translated into English

Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem grew up near Jaffa, but now lives in New York. Photo: Ahmed Fathi

A fantasy novel that imagines what would happen if all Palestinians disappeared is on the longlist for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Originally written in Arabic, The Book of Disappearance is Palestinian author Ibtisam Azem's second novel and was first published to wide acclaim in 2014. It has been translated into English by Sinan Antoon.

While revealing the longlist of 13 books for this year's International Booker Prize – 11 novels and two collections of short stories – on Tuesday evening, judges called The Book of Disappearance “an unforgettable glimpse into contemporary Palestine as it grapples with both the memory of loss and the loss of memory”.

“Speculative and haunting, this is an exceptional exercise in memory-making and psycho-geography,” they said in a statement.

The Book of Disappearance was first published in Arabic in 2014 and was translated into English by Sinan Antoon in 2019. Photo: Syracuse University Press

Speaking to The National in 2019, after the translated version of The Book of Disappearance was first published, Azem, who was born in Jaffa but later moved to Germany to study and then to New York, said the inspiration came out of her own personal experiences.

“For me, it all became too much – politically and ­socially. I had to leave. But when I started writing, I took that feeling of being invisible quite literally. I couldn’t get this thought – of what would happen if Palestinians in Israel actually did disappear – out of my mind,” she said.

“If you call it a fantasy, I guess that's a place where I could have a lot of freedom to talk about how things are, as well as how they could be. The opportunities were limitless.”

Azem's novel opens with Alaa, a young Palestinian man who recounts the death of his grandmother. She had survived the Nakba of 1948, but was displaced from her birthplace of Jaffa. Alaa's friend, Ariel, a liberal Zionist, is critical of the military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza yet faithful to the project of Israel. One day, Ariel wakes up to find that all Palestinians have suddenly vanished and begins investigating their collective disappearance.

The International Booker Prize, which recognises works translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland, is a companion award to the flagship Booker Prize, which awards works written in English. A further shortlist of six books will be announced on April 8, with the final winner of the £50,000 prize to be revealed at a ceremony in London on May 20.

This year's judging panel, chaired by English writer Max Porter, includes Nigerian author Caleb Femi; publisher Sana Goyal; South Korean writer Anton Hur and English singer-songwriter Beth Orton.

International Booker Prize 2025 longlist

– The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem, translated from Arabic by Sinan Antoon

– On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J Haveland

– There’s a Monster Behind the Door by Gaelle Belem, translated from French by Karen Fleetwood and Laetitia Saint-Loubert

– Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu, translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter

– Reservoir Bitches by Dahlia de la Cerda, translated from Spanish by Heather Cleary and Julia Sanches

– Small Boat by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson

– Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa, translated from Japanese by Polly Barton

– Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda

– Eurotrash by Christian Kracht, translated from German by Daniel Bowles

– Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes

– Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi

– On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott

– A Leopard-Skin Hat by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson