The longlist for the International Booker Prize 2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, has been announced, featuring stories of witchcraft, warfare, trauma, transformation and more.
The longlist of 13 books was chosen by the 2026 judging panel, chaired by award-winning author Natasha Brown. She is joined by writer, broadcaster and Oxford University professor of Mathematics and for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy; International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes; writer, Lolwe editor and bookseller Troy Onyango; and award-winning novelist and columnist Nilanjana S Roy.
The selection, which was chosen from 128 books submitted by publishers, celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026.
The International Booker Prize recognizes the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator. The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday, 31 March 2026. Each shortlisted title will be awarded a prize of £5,000 – divided equally between the author and translator.
The announcement of the winning book will take place on Tuesday, 19 May 2026 at a ceremony at Tate Modern, London.
The 13 nominated books are:
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin, published by Scribe UK
We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers, published by Harvill
The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay, published by Scribe UK
The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell, published by Fitzcarraldo Editions
Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson, published by Wildfire
She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel, published by Peirene Press
The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin, published by riverrun
On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan, published by Charco Press
The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri, published by Foundry Editions
The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump, published by MacLehose Press
Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh, published by Penguin International Writers
The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken, published by Viking
Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, published by And Other Stories
The longlisted books travel across continents and centuries. There are bittersweet love stories and dark fairy tales; fictional accounts of historic figures and narratives steeped in magical realism. With themes ranging from witchcraft to warfare, resilience to cruelty, magic to murder, and revolution to renewal, the nominated books offer explorations of our capacity to endure, resist or reinvent ourselves, and to remain hopeful in challenging times.
The books feature memorable characters, including a queer Argentinian conquistador, a morally compromised German film director, a ‘sworn virgin’ who renounces womanhood, a child-star-turned-thief, a Japanese novelist with a ‘monstrous appetite’, an idiosyncratic Italian aristocrat and a Danish noblewoman accused of sorcery. They transport readers from a brutal prison colony in a remote corner of Brazil to an Albanian village ruled by ancient laws, from an asylum for traumatized soldiers in Belgium to an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.
