This week the Shortlist was announced for the 2026 Booker Prize.
- M John Harrison - The End of Everything (British)
- Marlon James - The Disappearers (Jamaican)
- Luke Kennard - Black Bag (British)
- Rebecca Perry - May We Feed the King (British)
- Elizabeth Strout - The Things We Never Say (American)
- Douglas Stuart - John of John (Scottish)
Mary Beard, Chair of the 2026 judges said of the shortlist:
'These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic, from the powerfully shocking to the intriguingly understated. In them, we meet characters from different countries and different centuries, created by authors 40 years apart, new talent and well-known favourites.This is writing at its best. There’s plenty to enjoy, some blissful escapism and prose to die for (‘I just wish I could have written that’ kept going through my mind). But there is also plenty here to change the way we see the world, to surprise us and to challenge our certainties.'
I am excited about this shortlist. So far I have only read John of John and The Things We Never Say, and loved them both. I am keen to read May We Feed the King and The Disappearers. I had thought that Emma Cline's Switzy and Kenan Orhan's The Renovation would make the shortlist, instead of Kennard's Black Bag and Harrison's The End of Everything. But the other four shortlisters I correctly predicted. I am going to predict now that Marlon James will win (again!) for The Disappearers.
The Winner will be announced on 9 November 2026. Better get reading!