Countdown to the ceremony
Discover the plans for this year’s ceremony, broadcast live from the BBC Radio Theatre on BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, BBC iPlayer, BBC News Channel and BBC World.
Welcome to the new online home of the Booker Prize and the International Booker Prize, the leading literary awards for single works of fiction.
The prizes celebrate outstanding fiction, whether originally written in English or translated into English, bringing recognition and readership to gifted authors from around the globe.
For over 50 years the prizes have identified future classics. Some of those books have won, others have been longlisted or shortlisted: all of them have earned a place in the Booker Library and in readers’ lives.
Find out the latest news about the prizes here, and browse the Booker Library - which showcases a unique collection of the world’s best contemporary fiction.
The 2021 shortlist
Brutal emotional truths hit home in Damon Galgut’s deft, powerful story of a diminished family and a troubled land.
Anuk Arudpragasam's masterful novel is an attempt to come to terms with life in the wake of the devastation of Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war.
Patricia Lockwood’s sincere and delightfully profane love letter to the infinite scroll, and a meditation on love, language and human connection.
Nadifa Mohamed’s gripping novel about a petty criminal in Cardiff who becomes the last man to be hanged there, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1952.
An astrobiologist thinks of a creative way to help his rare and troubled son in Richard Powers’ deeply moving and brilliantly original novel.
The lives of a fearless female aviator and the actress who portrays her on screen decades later intersect in Maggie Shipstead’s vivid, soaring novel.
The 2021 longlist
Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly-changing world through the eyes of a unique narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?
An astrobiologist thinks of a creative way to help his rare and troubled son in Richard Powers’ deeply moving and brilliantly original novel.
Patricia Lockwood’s sincere and delightfully profane love letter to the infinite scroll, and a meditation on love, language and human connection.
Mary Lawson explores the relationships of three people brought together by fate and the mistakes of the past in this gripping, darkly domestic tale.
The lives of a fearless female aviator and the actress who portrays her on screen decades later intersect in Maggie Shipstead’s vivid, soaring novel.
Anuk Arudpragasam's masterful novel is an attempt to come to terms with life in the wake of the devastation of Sri Lanka's 30-year civil war.
Can art both save and destroy us? Rachel Cusk offers a deep affirmation of the human soul, while grappling with its darkest demons.
Nadifa Mohamed’s gripping novel about a petty criminal in Cardiff who becomes the last man to be hanged there, wrongfully convicted of murder in 1952.
Karen Jennings’ gripping novel asks a question: to what lengths will a person go in order to ensure that what is theirs will not be taken from them?
Conjuring a world fraught with tragedy and violence yet threaded through with hope, Nathan Harris’ debut novel is enthralling and deeply moving.
Brutal emotional truths hit home in Damon Galgut’s deft, powerful story of a diminished family and a troubled land.
Francis Spufford’s ingenious and miraculously tender novel reimagines the lives of five London children killed in a rocket attack in World War Two.
Punjab, 1929: a bride marries a man she is not allowed to see. Curiosity grows, with far-reaching consequences in Sunjeev Sahota’s absorbing novel.
- By
- David Diop
- Published by
- Pushkin Press
A hypnotic, heartbreaking rendering of a mind hurtling towards madness, shattered by grief and the horror of war. Translated by Anna Moschovakis.
The ultimate prize to win in the English speaking world