The 13-strong Booker Prize longlist is out with organizers saying this year’s selection is one that rewards risk.
The longlist includes Douglas Stuart with ‘John of John’ and Marlon James with ‘The Disappearers’ – both writers are previous winners and have film and TV connections. Stuart has been adapting his winning novel ‘Shuggie Bain’ for the BBC and A24, while James created Get Millie Black for HBO and Channel 4. He also has new TV projects in development, as we revealed earlier this year.
American novelist Elizabeth Strout makes the longlist with ‘The Things We Never Say.’ Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel ‘Olive Kitteridge’ was adapted as an HBO miniseries. Chloe Aridjis features with ‘The Shadow of the Object.’ In film, she starred in Josh Appignanesi-directed movie Female Human Animal.
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Reckoned to be the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction, the Booker is hugely prestigious. The film and TV world also tunes in with Booker-winning novels often adapted for the small and big screen. Hilary Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hall’, Thomas Keneally’s ‘Schindler’s Ark’ (published as ‘Schindler’s List’ in the U.S.) and Yann Martel’s ‘Life of Pi’ are just some examples.
Last year’s winner, ‘Flesh’ is being adapted by Conclave producer House Productions, as author David Szalay revealed to Deadline the day after his win.
The Booker’s 2026 judging panel is chaired by classicist, writer and broadcaster Mary Beard. “Books are not mirrors: they don’t simply reflect ourselves back to us,” she said. “One of the many important things about fiction is that it helps us see what it might be like not to be us, to begin to understand the perspectives of others, and to imagine what it might be like to see the world differently. Great books are not cozy. In their various ways, the novels we have chosen are (we hope) dynamite.”
Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, added: “Whether working in a traditional form or stretching its possibilities, these writers can take you to the edge of a world or a thought or a feeling. There are books here that are funny, books that are pacey, books that are bold, books that will move you to tears. The 2026 longlist rewards risk: it is full of genuinely original work, and has human fingerprints all over it.”
Authors representing seven nationalities are on the 2026 longlist with the majority hailing from the UK. There are three debut novels on the list. Here’s the full longlist.
‘The Shadow of the Object’ – Chloe Aridjis (Chatto & Windus)
‘Switzy’ – Emma Cline (Chatto & Windus)
‘Helen of Nowhere’ – Makenna Goodman (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
‘The End of Everything’ – M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail)
‘The Disappearers’ – Marlon James (Hamish Hamilton)
‘Black Bag’ – Luke Kennard (John Murray)
‘The Renovation’ – Kenan Orhan (Hamish Hamilton)
‘May We Feed the King’ – Rebecca Perry (Granta)
‘The Palm House’ – Gwendoline Riley (Picador)
‘The Things We Never Say’ – Elizabeth Strout (Viking Fiction)
‘John of John’ – Douglas Stuart (Picador)
‘All Them Dogs’ – Djamel White (John Murray)
‘The Vivisectors’ – Missouri Williams (4th Estate)
