Here’s the shortlist for the 2026 Booker Prize.

Today, the Booker Prize Foundation announced the six books on the 2026 Booker Prize shortlist, whittled down from the “Booker’s Dozen” announced in July. The Booker is the UK’s most prestigious literary prize, which celebrates longform fiction written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland (this year, between October 2025 and September 2026). Each of the below shortlisted authors will receive £2,500; the winner will take home £50,000, along with plenty of book sales and bragging rights.

But when we looked at the lineup of our shortlist, neatly propped up against one another, almost glowing, we were happy that we had showcased many of the strengths of contemporary English language fiction. 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.

Elizabeth Strout, The Things We Never Say This year’s judges are Mary Beard (Chair), Raymond Antrobus, Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu, and Patricia Lockwood. The winner will be announced in a ceremony on November 9.