The Booker Prize 2026 Longlist, Book by Book
The 13 novels longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, from two returning winners to three debut authors, with each title linked to its BookLedge page.
Josh Finnie··3 min readThe Booker Prize 2026 longlist landed this week, and it is a genuinely strange mix. Thirteen novels made the cut, ranging from thriller to dystopian science fiction to straightforward love story, chosen by a panel chaired by classicist and broadcaster Mary Beard. We pulled all 13 into BookLedge so any club can add one straight to a reading queue.
Who made the list
Two former winners are back. Douglas Stuart, who won in 2020 for Shuggie Bain, returns with John of John. Marlon James, the 2015 winner for A Brief History of Seven Killings, is nominated for The Disappearers. Elizabeth Strout picks up her third nomination for The Things We Never Say, and three of the thirteen authors are publishing their debut novel.
The list splits almost evenly by nationality, with five American authors and six British authors rounding out the group. The age range runs wide too, from 28 to 81, which tracks with how different these books sound from each other in premise alone.
The full longlist
| Title | Author | BookLedge |
|---|---|---|
| The Shadow of the Object | Chloe Aridjis | View on BookLedge |
| Switzy | Emma Cline | View on BookLedge |
| Helen of Nowhere | Makenna Goodman | View on BookLedge |
| The End of Everything | M. John Harrison | View on BookLedge |
| The Disappearers | Marlon James | View on BookLedge |
| Black Bag | Luke Kennard | View on BookLedge |
| The Renovation | Kenan Orhan | View on BookLedge |
| May We Feed the King | Rebecca Perry | View on BookLedge |
| The Palm House | Gwendoline Riley | View on BookLedge |
| The Things We Never Say | Elizabeth Strout | View on BookLedge |
| John of John | Douglas Stuart | View on BookLedge |
| All Them Dogs | Djamel White | View on BookLedge |
| The Vivisectors | Missouri Williams | View on BookLedge |
Three of these titles, The Disappearers, Black Bag, and The Palm House, are so new that Open Library has not catalogued a description or cover for them yet. We still added them so your club can track them from day one, and the entries will fill in automatically once Open Library catches up.
What readers are saying
Early reaction skews toward the list rewarding risk over consensus picks. Readers on r/TrueLit have been debating the balance between the two big returning names and the three debuts, with the general sentiment being that a longlist this uneven in tone is more interesting than a safe one, even if it makes predicting the shortlist harder than usual. The discussion continues on r/books and r/literature if you want to see where other readers land on this year's list.
What comes next
The shortlist gets announced on September 22, 2026, at a public event at the Southbank Centre in London, with all five judges appearing in conversation. The winner follows on November 9, 2026, at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate. If your club wants to read along, every book above is already in BookLedge with a real page, ready for a reading schedule and spoiler-safe discussion threads the moment your first member starts chapter one.