Douglas Stuart and Marlon James are among the previous Booker winners named on this year’s longlist, alongside three-time nominee Elizabeth Strout, in a 13-book selection that chair of judges Mary Beard said “rewards risk”. The novels in contention for the £50,000 award were announced on Tuesday and include authors from seven nationalities across three continents, with almost half from the UK.
Who is on the 2026 Booker longlist?
The 13 novels selected for the 2026 prize feature 10 writers appearing on a Booker longlist for the first time, including three debut novelists: Kenan Orhan, Rebecca Perry and Djamel White. The list is:
The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis (Chatto & Windus)
Switzy by Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus)
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
The End of Everything by M John Harrison (Serpent's Tail)
The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton)
Black Bag by Luke Kennard (John Murray)
The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (Hamish Hamilton)
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta)
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley (Picador)
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking)
John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador)
All Them Dogs by Djamel White (John Murray)
The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams (4th Estate)
What did the judges say about the books?
Beard said that each book on the longlist
“brilliantly musters the power of words on the page to take the reader to new places, to see old places from new angles, to change minds.
“I would not be telling the truth if I said that I hadn’t occasionally felt daunted, as a new box of 30 or so gleaming volumes landed on my doorstep,”she added.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said the judges’ “range of tastes” and “openness of mind” had produced a list that “shows how capacious an art form the novel is”, adding that it “rewards risk” and contains “genuinely original work”.
Which familiar names return to the prize?
James is longlisted for his fifth novel, The Disappearers, based around a homophobic mob attack in 1980s Jamaica and due to be published in September. The judges called it
“a reckoning”from
“a singular literary talent”.
Stuart returns with his third novel, John of John, which the judges praised for its
“rich, textural detail”.Should either author win again, they would become only the fifth writer to take the Booker twice, joining JM Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood.
Strout picks up her third Booker nomination for The Things We Never Say, her critically acclaimed 11th novel, which reckons with Trump’s America. Strout was longlisted in 2016 for My Name Is Lucy Barton and shortlisted in 2022 for Oh William!
What firsts could this longlist deliver?
The list opens the door to two firsts. Chloe Aridjis, who is Mexican-British and longlisted for The Shadow of the Object, could become the first winner of Mexican heritage with her
“mysterious and free-wheeling novel”.Kenan Orhan, Turkish-American and longlisted for his debut novel The Renovation, in which a woman discovers that her bathroom has become a prison cell, could become the first winner of Turkish heritage.
At 81, M John Harrison is the oldest on the list, longlisted for the first time for The End of Everything after 12 previous novels and a stint as a Booker judge himself in 2022. Should he win, he would surpass Atwood as the prize’s oldest ever recipient, after she was 79 when she jointly won in 2019. At the other end of the list is 28-year-old Djamel White, the only Irish writer on the list, whose debut All Them Dogs grew out of a short story and is set in the
“criminal badlands”of west Dublin.
Who judged the 2026 Booker Prize?
Chairing this year’s judging panel is the classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard, who is joined by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. The other judges are writer Raymond Antrobus, Booker prize-shortlisted novelist, poet and essayist Patricia Lockwood, and journalist Rebecca Liu. Cocker follows in the footsteps of others in the entertainment industry who have judged the prize in recent years, including Sarah Jessica Parker, Adjoa Andoh and Robert Webb.
“I was aware that I was, shall we say, the least formally qualified person on this jury, but I didn’t really let that bother me,”Cocker said in an interview.
“Knowing that the Booker prizes tend to create panels including people who aren’t necessarily part of the literary world – but can read! – helped me, and I thought I was obviously supposed to bring something that others don’t: a different perspective.”
What other books are on the list?
The list also includes Emma Cline’s Switzy, out in September, which tells the story of a man’s final journey to a euthanasia clinic in Zurich; Luke Kennard’s Black Bag, a comedy about a struggling actor; Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King, which has already won the 2026 Waterstones debut fiction prize; Gwendoline Riley’s The Palm House, a portrait of literary London; and Missouri Williams’s The Vivisectors, billed as an antidote to the
“cosy campus novel”.
When will the shortlist and winner be announced?
The shortlist will be announced at the Southbank Centre in London on 22 September, with the winner named at a ceremony on 9 November.
A total of 163 books were submitted, all written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026.
Last year’s winner was David Szalay’s Flesh. Other recent winners include Samantha Harvey, Paul Lynch, Shehan Karunatilaka and Damon Galgut.
Key Facts
- 13 novels were announced on Tuesday for the 2026 Booker Prize longlist.
- The prize is worth £50,000.
- The shortlist will be announced on 22 September at the Southbank Centre in London.
- The winner will be named on 9 November.
- 163 books were submitted for consideration.
