2025 Booker Prize (longlist)
BOOKER PRIZE LONGLIST • ‘A vibrant, heartstrings-tugging novel’ (People) about a mother’s love, in all its forms, as a woman searches for the daughter she gave up for adoption, from the prize-winning author of Golden Child
‘A beautiful story . . . explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love.’—Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers
‘Reads like a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.’—The Times, ‘Best Books to Take on Holiday This Summer’
For much of her life, Dawn has felt as if something is missing. Now, at the age of fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown-up sons busy with their own lives, she should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and to the secret she’s kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and—as was common in Trinidad back then—her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption.
More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not as easy as she had thought. It’s an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps—from Trinidad to Venezuela and then to London—and to question not only that fateful decision she’d made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since.
Love Forms is a powerfully moving story of a woman in search of herself—a novel that rings with heartfelt empathy through the passages of a mother’s life, depicting the enduring bonds of love, family, and home.
Genre: Literary Fiction
‘A beautiful story . . . explores what it means to be a woman and what it means to love.’—Amanda Peters, author of The Berry Pickers
‘Reads like a Claire Keegan story expanded by Elizabeth Strout.’—The Times, ‘Best Books to Take on Holiday This Summer’
For much of her life, Dawn has felt as if something is missing. Now, at the age of fifty-eight, with a divorce behind her and her two grown-up sons busy with their own lives, she should be trying to settle into a new future for herself. But she keeps returning to the past and to the secret she’s kept all these years. At just sixteen, Dawn found herself pregnant, and—as was common in Trinidad back then—her parents sent her away to have the baby and give her up for adoption.
More than forty years later, Dawn yearns to reconnect with her lost daughter. But tracking down her child is not as easy as she had thought. It’s an emotional journey that leads Dawn to retrace her steps—from Trinidad to Venezuela and then to London—and to question not only that fateful decision she’d made as a teenager but every turn in the road of her life since.
Love Forms is a powerfully moving story of a woman in search of herself—a novel that rings with heartfelt empathy through the passages of a mother’s life, depicting the enduring bonds of love, family, and home.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"I simply could not put it down ... From the very first page, I knew I was in the hands of a master storyteller. An utterly arresting tale of love and grief, of the wounding and healing powers of family, of the many guises of a mother's love. It's an absolute triumph." - Sara Collins
"I was moved and mesmerised by this beautifully crafted novel. Claire Adam draws us effortlessly into the unsettling heart of Dawn Bishop's story, a story in which love and pain co-exist, connect, even merge. From the first page to the last, we touch a real human being living a real human life." - Joanna Glen
"A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places." - Romesh Gunesekera
"A quietly devastating masterpiece... I can't remember the last time a book has gripped and moved me in this way. I rarely cry, but I howled. This is a standout novel." - Marian Keyes
"An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength." - Claire Kilroy
"Love Forms is an exquisitely written and uniquely Caribbean novel about the hard edges of social pressure and the soft longing of mother love. I was swept way from page one to the kicker ending. A story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family, Adam writes a compelling and tender narrative which feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary. It felt true and pure and very feminine. Read this book and give it to your friends." - Monique Roffey
"A devastating story about family secrets, and what it truly means to be a mother. Intimate, poignant, and beautifully written, this unforgettable novel will stay with me for a long time." - Amanda Smyth
"I was moved and mesmerised by this beautifully crafted novel. Claire Adam draws us effortlessly into the unsettling heart of Dawn Bishop's story, a story in which love and pain co-exist, connect, even merge. From the first page to the last, we touch a real human being living a real human life." - Joanna Glen
"A compelling read taking us to the heart of difficult family situations and evocative secret places." - Romesh Gunesekera
"A quietly devastating masterpiece... I can't remember the last time a book has gripped and moved me in this way. I rarely cry, but I howled. This is a standout novel." - Marian Keyes
"An arresting voice that made me think of silk: its delicate beauty belies its intrinsic strength." - Claire Kilroy
"Love Forms is an exquisitely written and uniquely Caribbean novel about the hard edges of social pressure and the soft longing of mother love. I was swept way from page one to the kicker ending. A story of what - and who - is hidden in almost every family, Adam writes a compelling and tender narrative which feels as old as the hills and yet acutely contemporary. It felt true and pure and very feminine. Read this book and give it to your friends." - Monique Roffey
"A devastating story about family secrets, and what it truly means to be a mother. Intimate, poignant, and beautifully written, this unforgettable novel will stay with me for a long time." - Amanda Smyth
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