The Booker Prize 2026 longlist, known as the Booker Dozen, has been announced. The 13 books are predominantly by British authors, with past winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart among them, alongside previous shortlistee Elizabeth Strout.
Chaired by classicist Mary Beard, the judging panel includes poet Raymond Antrobus, musician Jarvis Cocker, journalist Rebecca Loi, and Booker-shortlisted novelist Patricia Lockwood. Beard said the novels “brilliantly muster the power of words to take the reader to new places, to see old places from new angles, to change minds.”
The longlist spans genres from dystopian sci-fi to historical fiction, with settings from the Isle of Harris to Mexico City. Three debut novelists are included. The six shortlisted books will be announced on Tuesday 22 September 2026, and the winner on Monday 9 November 2026, receiving £50,000.
The 13 Books
Things We Can Never Say by Elizabeth Strout (Viking) – A standalone story set in coastal Massachusetts during the 2024 presidential election, following a high school history teacher grappling with middle-aged ennui.
John of John by Douglas Stuart (Picador) – Set on the Isle of Harris, it explores masculinity and working-class Scottish life through a homecoming art graduate at odds with his devout father.
The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis (Chatto & Windus) – After a dog bite in Mexico City, Flora has dream-like conversations with an elderly patient that alter her perception of reality.
Switzy by Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus) – An ageing man’s final journey to a Zurich clinic, with stops in London and France, as memories invade his final moments.
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions) – A disgraced literature professor flees city life for a remote countryside house linked to a mystical former owner.
The End of Everything by M. John Harrison (Serpent's Tail) – In a post-catastrophe coastal English town, a beachcomber and his aunt face an alien-like enemy known as the iGhetti.
The Disappearers by Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton) – Set in 1980s Jamaica, eight gay men are targeted in a mob attack during a play rehearsal.
Black Bag by Luke Kennard (John Murray) – A campus comedy where an out-of-work actor is zipped into a bag for a professor’s psychological experiment.
The Renovation by Kenan Orhan (Hamish Hamilton) – A Turkish exile in Italy finds her bathroom renovation modelled as a prison cell, forcing her to confront grief and migration.
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry (Granta) – A historical novel switching between a modern museum curator and a medieval king.
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley (Picador) – A somber novel narrated by a writer reflecting on difficult relationships and past trauma.
All Them Dogs by Djamel White (John Murray) – A literary crime story set in Dublin’s underworld, following a man returning home after a gangland killing.
The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams (4th Estate) – In a university city, a withdrawn graduate is instructed to befriend a controversial student amid political conflict.
