“It’s been an extraordinary seven months,” said Mary Beard, Chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judging panel, in a statement accompanying this year’s longlist. “The five Booker judges have each read 163 books, discussed and debated them, and sometimes re-read them, to whittle them down to a longlist of just 13.”

By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief

Past winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart, and previous shortlisted author Elizabeth Strout are among the 13 novelists longlisted for the 2026 Book Prize, one of the most prestigious fiction prizes in the world.

In an announcement this morning, the Booker judging panel shared their list of 13 books—the Booker Dozen—from which a shortlist will be drawn on September 22 at a public event at the Southbank Center in London, with the winner to be revealed at a ceremony set for November 9 at Old Billingsgate in London. Shortlisted novelists will receive a £2,500 cash prize, with the winner taking home £50,000 and a coveted trophy named Iris.

“It’s been an extraordinary seven months. The five Booker judges have each read 163 books, discussed and debated them, and sometimes re-read them, to whittle them down to a longlist of just 13,” said Mary Beard, Chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judging panel, in a statement accompanying this year’s announcment. “But what I shall most remember is the eye-opening pleasure of it all, and what I learnt about reading and the power of fiction from my fellow judges.”

Also serving on this year’s judging panel: writer and educator Raymond Antrobus; musician, writer and broadcaster Jarvis Cocker; journalist, editor and critic Rebecca Liu; and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist, poet and essayist Patricia Lockwood.

The List

The 2026 Booker Prize longlist—along with a description shared by the judges—includes:

The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis (Chatto & Windus; Vintage, Penguin Random House): “A mysterious and free-wheeling novel which moves between the real world and dream-states. We were charmed by its suggestion that the most meaningful truths can be found in the shadows.”

Switzy by Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus; Vintage, Penguin Random House): “Cline writes vividly about all the trappings of the elite – the private jets, the heirloom watches – as well as their sad social cost in a story that feels immersive, elegiac, and very real.’

Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions): “A spellbinding novel or a play with just four characters? Philosophically, politically, and spiritually adventurous, this slim, ambitious volume has the power to transform.”

The End of Everything by M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail; Profile Books): “A book not just about everything but about now. Shimmering, oblique, it holds the reader to the surface of something very grave and deep.”

The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton; Penguin Random House): “A book that examines territory Caribbean literature has rarely dared to occupy, as what begins as a theatrical story becomes something closer to a reckoning. James is a singular literary talent.”

Black Bag by Luke Kennard (John Murray; Hachette): “This of-the-moment satire considers anonymity and disgust, online rackets, and what it means to find love in our unstable times. We admired its sharply crafted sentences and humor.”

The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (Hamish Hamilton; Penguin Random House): “A hilarious fantasy which had some of the judges laughing out loud. But it also poses questions about political activism, belonging, and the different forms imprisonment can take.”

May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta): “A wonderfully enticing combination of themes, woven together with a delicacy of touch. You can’t read it without reflecting on the fragile boundary between the present and the past.”

The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley (Picador; Pan Macmillan): “A note-perfect portrait of rarefied London intellectual spaces, and the people who make up that impersonal thing we think of as the Establishment. Minimalist, precise, and indelible.”

The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout  (Viking Fiction; Penguin Random House): “A devastating look at the dangerous cracks in family life and in the contemporary world at large. Strout’s prose is brilliantly understated and all the more powerful for that.”

John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador; Pan Macmillan): “This excavation of family, violence and shame is woven through with beautiful imagistic detail, and – unexpectedly – shades of hope. We loved the rich, textural detail of the story.”

All Them Dogs by Djamel White (John Murray; Hachette): “A ballsy, unsentimental portrait of West Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks. White has an ear for dialogue that is both racy and real.”

The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams (4th Estate; HarperCollins); “A bracing antidote to the cosy campus and the dark academia novel, The Vivisectors is genuinely experimental, relentlessly and rollickingly told – and in places truly menacing.”

The full judges’ comments on the longlisted books can be viewed here.

Former Winners, Critically Acclaimed Debuts

This year’s longlist features authors representing three continents and seven countries (England, Ireland, Scotland, Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey and the U.S.) as well as several tantalizing storylines, according to the judges.

If Chloe Aridjis, who is Mexican-British, wins the top honor she would be the first author of Mexican heritage to do so; meanwhile, Kenan Orhan, who is Turkish-American, could be the first winner of Turkish heritage.

Repeating as Booker Prize winner is a rare feat—just four authors have won the Booker Prize more than once (Margaret Atwood, Peter Carey, J.M. Coetzee, and Hilary Mantel). This year, one of two authors on the longlist could join that exclusive club: Marlon James, who won in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings); and Douglas Stuart, who won in 2020 with his debut novel Shuggie Bain).

And could this be the year that Elizabeth Strout breaks through? Strout has received her third nomination for The Things We Never Say—her 11th novel.

This year’s longlist ranges in age from 28 (Djamel White) to 81 (M. John Harrison). Notably, while this is Harrison’s first nomination, he has experience with the Booker prize, serving as a judge in 2022. If he goes on to win he would become the oldest winner in the history of the prize.

This year’s list is also a show of force for the major publishers, with 10 of the 13 titles on the longlist published by a major house, led by Penguin Random House, which has five titles across three imprints.