This week the Longlist was announced for the 2026 Booker Prize.
A few weeks ago I released my predictions of who might make the list and I managed to correctly guess only two of the titles (marked with an asterix) and two more were on my extended (marked with double asterix). But most of these were not on my radar. Clearly I am terrible at guessing this list!
So let's take a look at the longlisters:
Flora is in hospital in Mexico where she meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia. The two have a series of conversations where Wilhelmina shared her life's wisdom and her life with her late husband, and her son Max. Flora learns that Wilhelmina collected pre-cinema toys like magic lanterns and shadow puppets. Flora is tasked with taking these things to Max in London. The judges said "We were charmed by the novel’s meditation on friendship and grief, and its suggestion that the most meaningful truths can be found in the shadows." Chloe Aridjis is also the author of three earlier novels Book of Clouds, Asunder and Sea Monsters.
David, a retired business executive, borrows his former employer's private plane to fly to Europe. On the way he stops in London to visit his daughter, makes a side trip to the home of an estranged friend, and remembers his childhood with greater clarity than his adulthood. Suffering from cognitive decline, David grasps for his memories and seeks to resolve his past failings before his ability fades. American author Emma Cline is best known for her debut The Girls (2016) and the novel The Guest (2023). The judges said of Switzy: "We live in a time ruled by overpowered and undersocialised wealthy boy kings; Emma Cline’s mordant novel considers what, if anything, remains at the end of one such luxurious yet lonely life."
Makenna Goodman - Helen of Nowhere (American)
A disgraced professor is shown around a house in the countryside. The realtor points put the house's qualities but also shares information about Helen, the previous owner of the home. Helen tended the land on her own and essentially lived off-grid. The man suddenly sees that the house can be more than a home; it is an opportunity to reinvent himself. The judges said ‘A spellbinding novel or a play with just four characters? In groundbreaking form, Helen of Nowhere blends both to challenge us with a seemingly simple question: How much are we truly willing to change ourselves in order to get back to nature?’ Goodman is an American author who has previously published The Shame (2020). I have heard good things about this novel and am intrigued.
Set in post-apocalyptic Kent, beachcomber Philip finds items on the shore and sells them on the black market. His elderly aunt Marnie paints and protects her home against the lawless roaming predators. Philip finds an artefact that has the potential to change their lives forever. The judges said ‘The sky is glitching, and something strange, formless and growing is soon to come out of the sea, to imitate our speech, forms, and customs. Our left-behind inhabitants scavenge where and what they can, provisional alliances are made and broken, shocking violence occurs, and no one can agree on exactly what has happened. A book not just about everything but about now. Shimmering and oblique, it holds the reader to the surface of something very grave and deep.’ Harrison is an author of speculative fiction and fantasy, and this is his thirteenth novel.
**Marlon James - The Disappearers (Jamaican)
In Kingston, Jamaica in 1988 eight men rehearse a play. They do not really know each other but they share one thing - they are all gay. One night they are attacked in an act of violent hate crime which kills one of the men. The seven survivors have to reckon with what happened and while some want to hide away, others want retribution. The judges said: ‘The Disappearers is among Marlon James’s most ambitious and history-making works, a novel that examines territory Caribbean literature has rarely dared to occupy..... His dialogue is sharp and propulsive, his phrasing is poetic, visceral and capable of moving from the painful to the darkly hilarious within a single exchange.’ James won the Booker Prize in 2014 for A Brief History of Seven Killings. I had the good fortune of meeting him at the Sydney Writers' Festival in 2016. While I haven't read much of his previous work, I am intrigued by this novel and will seek it out once published in Australia.
In Kingston, Jamaica in 1988 eight men rehearse a play. They do not really know each other but they share one thing - they are all gay. One night they are attacked in an act of violent hate crime which kills one of the men. The seven survivors have to reckon with what happened and while some want to hide away, others want retribution. The judges said: ‘The Disappearers is among Marlon James’s most ambitious and history-making works, a novel that examines territory Caribbean literature has rarely dared to occupy..... His dialogue is sharp and propulsive, his phrasing is poetic, visceral and capable of moving from the painful to the darkly hilarious within a single exchange.’ James won the Booker Prize in 2014 for A Brief History of Seven Killings. I had the good fortune of meeting him at the Sydney Writers' Festival in 2016. While I haven't read much of his previous work, I am intrigued by this novel and will seek it out once published in Australia.Luke Kennard - Black Bag (British)
A broke actor is hired by university professor Dr Blend to participate in a psychological experiment. Blend wants to see how his students will react to someone showing up at lectures zipped inside a black bag. The actor takes on this role and soon realises there are unexpected consequences. The judges said ‘Luke Kennard’s of-the-moment satire considers anonymity and disgust, the online rackets of cryptocurrency and energy drinks, and what it means to find love in our unstable times. There’ll be a lot of discussion about what the novel has to say about the state of modern masculinity (fractious; confused) – we also admired its sharply crafted sentences, memorable sex scenes, and humour.’ Kennard is an award winning poet and novelist. 
Kenan Orhan - The Renovation (Turkish-American)
Dilara's father has dementia. She decides that he should move into her home and organises for a renovation to her apartment in anticipation. Unfortunately the contractors have not built the bathroom she wanted, and instead installed a Turkish prison cell through which she can see the guards and hear prisoners. The judges called this novel ‘a hilarious fantasy which had some of the judges laughing out loud. But it’s more than that. It poses questions about political activism, about where you really belong, and about the different forms that ‘imprisonment’ can take (from dementia to exile).’ The Renovation is his debut novel.
Rebecca Perry - May We Feed the King (British)
A curator works in a palace dressing rooms for public viewing. The palace was once home of a King who was a reluctant ruler. This novel uses a historical ruler worried about the future of his kingdom and a present woman wanting to run to the past. The judges said ‘It’s a wonderfully enticing, and eye-opening, combination of themes, woven together with an extraordinary delicacy of touch. You can’t read May We Feed the King without reflecting on the fragile boundary between the present and the past. What’s the difference between historical fiction and historical fact? Can history ever be a safe place we can go to escape the present?’ This is Perry's debut novel.
Laura and Edmund are old friends. But when Edmund's father dies and he gets a new boss, he grows distant. Laura has her own worries but she is determined to bring him back.The judges said ‘A note-perfect portrait not only of certain rarefied London intellectual spaces, but also of the people who actually bring their own bloodstreams, histories, tastes, families, first loves, and lonelinesses to them, to make up that impersonal thing we think of as the Establishment... The Palm House is minimalist, precise, and indelible.’ Riley is the award winning author of My Phantoms, First Love and Cold Water. I have a copy of The Palm House and look forward to reading it.
I absolutely loved this novel and am so pleased it is on the list! Artie Dam appears to have everything - he is a beloved teacher, he has a long marriage and he has a son. But Artie is so lonely that he wants to die. ut an incident changes his outlook and he learns he has so much to live for. The judges said ‘Strout’s prose is about as far from a rant as you could imagine, brilliantly understated and all the more powerful for that. It’s a devastating look at the dangerous cracks in family life and in the contemporary world at large.’ Strout was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016 for My Name is Lucy Barton and shortlisted in 2022 for Oh William! Perhaps third time lucky! My review is available here.
Douglas Stuart - John of John (Scottish)
Set in a remote island community, this noel tells the story of a father and sonny the unbearable weight of expectation. The judges said 'We loved the rich, textural detail of the story, which is set in the 80s and examines young Cal’s fraught relationship with his domineering father. There’s a vivid sense of time and place, as the island becomes the site of bristling tensions between secret lovers, feuding families, and a stand-off between tradition and modernity. This excavation of family, violence, and shame is woven through with beautiful imagistic detail, and – unexpectedly but wonderfully – shades of hope.’ This is one of my favourite novels this year, and Stuart is one of my favourite writers. My review is available here. Stuart won the Booker Prize in 2020 for Shuggie Bain, and I would be quite happy if he won again.
Djamel White - All Them Dogs (Irish)
Tony Ward returns to the West Dublin gang scene after five years away to find things have changed. He is keen to reinstate his position, but has complicated feelings for another gang member. The judges said 'All Them Dogs, the debut novel by Djamel White, is a mouthy, ballsy and bracingly unsentimental portrait of West Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks. It charts the lives, loyalties and dealings of a semi-organised crime world. Yet, the novel’s real achievement lies in something quieter and more easily overlooked beneath the bullets and bone-breaking dramatics: a subtle, textured humanity woven among the violent hyper-masculine protagonists.’ This novel sounds interesting but it may be too violent for my liking. Missouri Williams - The Vivisectors (British)
Set on a university campus, a power struggle is waging between the academic elite and militant gardeners intent on plants taking over the city. Agathe is frustrated by the unwieldy foliage and disheartened by the professor she works for. He asks her to befriend Adam, an outspoken student and finds herself pulled into the broader conflict. The judges said "A bracing antidote to the cosy campus and the dark academia novel, The Vivisectors instead imagines higher education as a transparent citadel where human axolotls masquerading as professors and students are bent on drawing and quartering each other with no mercy, as their nameless city is overtaken by relentless vegetable growth. No one is protected, everyone is exposed, it is highly doubtful anyone is learning anything, and on top of all that vines are coming up your legs. Genuinely experimental, relentlessly and rollickingly told – in places truly menacing – The Vivisectors is the rare title that actually earns its name.’ Sounds intriguing....
The Booker Prize Longlist is often a mixed bag of novels, but what I love about the Longlist is that it introduces me to many authors and books I do not know.
Last year I wasn't too thrilled by the longlist and only ended up reading the winning novel, Flesh by David Szalay. This year, the list is quirky and bold. I have read and loved the novels by Strout and Stuart, and I am about to start the novel by Riley. I am keen to read the novels by James, Williams, Goodman and Orhan when they are available in Australia.
The Shortlist will be announced on 22 September 2026 and the winner on 9 November 2026. Better get reading!