Booker Prize Shortlist 2026

Booker Prize Shortlist 2026

The Booker Prize is one of the world's best-known literary awards. Each year it honours the best novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland. This year, the judges read 163 books. They narrowed them down to a longlist of 13, and then to just six. The winner will be announced in November.

About this year's shortlist
Mary Beard chairs this year's judging panel, which also includes Jarvis Cocker. She calls the six shortlisted novels "writing at its best." They take you from a remote Scottish island in Douglas Stuart's tender father-and-son story to Marlon James's sweeping epic set in Jamaica. Along the way you'll find a darkly funny road novel, a puzzle-like historical tale and a hilarious campus satire, so there's something here for every reader