International Booker Prize 2026 longlist is announced
Thirteen books translated from eleven languages make the 2026 International Booker Prize longlist, chosen by a panel chaired by Natasha Brown.
The longlist for the 2026 International Booker Prize was announced on 24 February 2026, the prize's tenth year in its current form. The judges, chaired by the novelist Natasha Brown, chose thirteen books from 128 submissions. The panel also included Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Hughes, Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S Roy.
The books are The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar (translated by Ruth Martin), We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (Robin Myers), The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje (David McKay), The Deserters by Mathias Énard (Charlotte Mandell), Small Comfort by Ia Genberg (Kira Josefsson), She Who Remains by Rene Karabash (Izidora Angel), The Director by Daniel Kehlmann (Ross Benjamin), On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia (Padma Viswanathan), The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre (Antonella Lettieri), The Witch by Marie NDiaye (Jordan Stump), Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur (Faridoun Farrokh), The Wax Child by Olga Ravn (Martin Aitken) and Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ (Lin King).
The books were translated from eleven languages. The shortlist was scheduled for 31 March and the winner for 19 May 2026.
Several of these books were first published in their original languages decades ago, which is a reminder that translation is not only about the new. Good books can wait a long time for an English edition. For readers, that makes a longlist like this as much a guide to overlooked work as to current fiction.