International Booker Prize 2026 Shortlist Revealed

The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist, revealed today, features six novels from around the globe competing for the award.

The shortlist, announced today, highlights translated fiction and the crucial author-translator partnership, notably featuring many women writers and translators. This brings diverse international voices to the English-speaking market. The final award ceremony on May 19 will split the £50,000 prize between the winning author and translator.

What We Know So Far

The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist features six novels selected from books translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on May 19, with the author and translator equally sharing a £50,000 prize.
The judging panel for the 2026 prize is chaired by British novelist Natasha Brown, author of Assembly.
Five of the six authors and four of the six translators on the shortlist are women, highlighting a strong representation of female voices in this year's selection.
According to thebookerprizes.com, the nominated books were all published between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026.
The prize is currently supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, which enables its continued celebration of global fiction.

International Booker Prize 2026 Shortlist: The Six Novels

The six books selected for the International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist offer a remarkable breadth of geography, history, and narrative form. Readers are transported from the political turmoil of 1979 Iran to the stark landscapes of the Albanian Alps, gaining intimate perspectives on pivotal global moments and secluded, timeless communities. This selection underscores the prize’s commitment to discovering and elevating stories from beyond the Anglosphere.

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Lilian Pestre van der Meijden.
She Who Remains by Gøran T. Jonsson, translated from Swedish by Melody Shaw.
The Director by Łukasz Drob, translated from Polish by Zosia Krasodomska-Jones.
On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan.
The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump.
Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi, translated from Chinese by Lin King.

This year’s list is notable for its inclusion of varied authorial experience. According to the Booker Prize foundation, it features two debut novels, The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran and She Who Remains, introducing new literary voices to an international audience. In contrast, it also includes Marie NDiaye’s The Witch, a novel first published in its original French thirty years ago, demonstrating the timeless power of a story to find a new readership through translation. The nomination of Canadian-American writer and translator Padma Viswanathan for her work on Ana Paula Maia's Brazilian novel, as reported by malaysiasun.com, further highlights the diasporic and cross-cultural collaborations that define contemporary translated fiction.