This year the prize is celebrating 10 years in its current form, in which time it has become the world’s most influential award for translated fiction. The Booker Prize Foundation is also announcing that Bukhman Philanthropies is generously funding the International Booker Prize in 2026. 

The judges’ longlist selection features: 

• 13 books translated from 11 original languages, by authors and translators representing 14 nationalities across four continents
• Three debuts, along with 13 previous nominees, including five returning author-translator pairings
• Themes that range from witchcraft to war, revolution to renewal, magic to murder
• Two books published in their original languages over 30 years ago; one that is banned in Iran, written by an author previously imprisoned for her writing
• Authors who include an award-winning actor, a historian of mountains and forests, an environmental and feminist activist and writers of manga, screenplays and poetry
• More than half of the list published by independent publishers including Foundry Editions for the first time and Fitzcarraldo Editions with its 17th nomination
• ‘Fresh and innovative’ stories that capture the ‘calibre and variety of translated fiction’, according to Natasha Brown, Chair of the 2026 judges  

Further reading: ‘Everything you need to know about the longlist’

The longlist of 13 books has been chosen by the 2026 judging panel, chaired by award-winning author Natasha Brown. Brown is joined by writer, broadcaster and Oxford University Professor of Mathematics and for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy; International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes; writer, Lolwe editor and bookseller Troy Onyango; and award-winning novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy. 

The selection, which was chosen from 128 books submitted by publishers, celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026.  

The International Booker Prize recognises the vital work of translation, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator/s. In championing works from around the world that have originated in a wide range of languages, the prize fosters an engaged global community of writers and readers whose experiences and interests transcend national borders.   

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Tuesday, 31 March 2026 via a press release and on the Booker Prizes website and social media channels. Each shortlisted title will be awarded a prize of £5,000: £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator. The announcement of the winning book will take place on Tuesday, 19 May 2026 at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London. The announcement will be livestreamed on the Booker Prizes social media channels. 

The longlisted books travel across continents and centuries. They use our collective histories to shine a light on our current preoccupations, and on the power imbalances that stem from gender, money and geopolitical forces. There are bittersweet love stories and dark fairytales; fictional accounts of historic figures and events steeped in magical realism; metafictional narratives and a novel in linked stories. Covering themes ranging from witchcraft to warfare, resilience to cruelty, magic to murder, revolution to renewal, the nominated books offer explorations of our capacity to endure, resist or reinvent ourselves, and to remain hopeful in challenging times. 

They feature memorable characters, including a queer Argentinian conquistador, a celebrated East Berlin mathematician dedicated to algebra and communism, a morally compromised German film director, a ‘sworn virgin’ who renounces womanhood, a child-star-turned-thief, a Japanese novelist with a ‘monstrous appetite’, an idiosyncratic Italian aristocrat and a Danish noblewoman accused of sorcery. They transport readers from a brutal prison colony in the Brazilian wilderness to an Albanian village ruled by ancient laws, from an asylum for traumatised soldiers in Belgium to an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.  

The full longlist for the International Booker Prize 2026 supported by Bukhman Philanthropies is: 

• The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin
• We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers
• The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay
• The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell  
• Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson
• She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel
• The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin
• On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan
• The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump
• Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh
• The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken
• Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King

‘Whether it’s for a birthday, a book club, or the bus ride to work, I’m confident that there’s a perfect fit among these 13 brilliant books. 

‘Many of the submitted books examined the devastating consequences of war, which is reflected in our longlist. The list also features petty squabbles between neighbours, mysterious mountain villages, Big Pharma conspiracies, witchy women, ill-fated lovers, a haunted prison, and obscure film references. The page counts range from ‘pocket-friendly’ to ‘doorstopper.’ And while the books’ original publication dates span four decades, each story feels fresh and innovative. 

‘The calibre and variety of translated fiction being published in the UK is unbelievable. As judges, we’ve been spoilt for choice during these past eight months reading this year’s 128 submissions. Our discussions are always lively, and we’ve often been surprised by the myriad ways these books engaged us. 

‘It is my absolute pleasure to share this sparkling selection of our favourites.’ 

‘This year, the International Booker Prize celebrates its 10th anniversary as a prize for fiction in translation, rewarding authors and translators on an equal basis. In that time, four authors spotlighted by the International Booker Prize for a single book have gone on to win the Nobel Prize for their entire body of work.   

‘It’s satisfying to note that each of the past 10 winners has been translated from a different language. And that this year, works originally written in 34 languages were submitted, the highest number in the prize’s history – a sign, perhaps, that translated works from an ever-broader range of original languages are increasingly available to anglophone readers. Fiction buyers seem to be embracing this: sales of translated fiction have doubled since the prize was first awarded in 2016. This year’s longlist, chosen by a wise group of passionate judges in a series of enlightening and always entertaining meetings, features two novels originally published several decades ago. The fact that there is an appetite to publish them in translation now is a cause for celebration. 

‘The International Booker Prize seeks to identify outstanding fiction from across the world and to encourage reading beyond borders: seeing lives and landscapes that lie far beyond the geographical fringes of our own and beginning to understand the experiences of others. This work has been given a huge boost this year by our collaboration with Bukhman Philanthropies, whose mission to amplify voices of writers aligns closely with the work of the Booker Prize Foundation. We are tremendously grateful for their support.’ 

The newly announced funder for the International Booker Prize 2026, Bukhman Philanthropies, is a grant-giving organisation that in addition to supporting literature focuses on charities working in neonatal and maternal health and mental health and wellbeing.  

‘Growing up, I read a lot of translated fiction, which became a gateway to understanding lives, cultures, and inner worlds far beyond my own. At a time when societies feel increasingly fragmented, translated literature plays a vital role in fostering empathy and widening perspective.  

Supporting the International Booker Prize in its tenth anniversary year feels especially meaningful: it honours both literary excellence and the power of stories to cross borders and languages, and it celebrates both the author and the translator behind the work in the era of AI. Through Bukhman Philanthropies, I am proud to support a prize that champions diverse voices, ensuring literature continues to challenge, inspire, and connect us. I look forward to deepening this collaboration in the years ahead.’ 

Crankstart continues to fund the Booker Prize and the Booker Prize Foundation’s work as a whole. For more information on how the Booker Prize Foundation is funded see here. 

This year’s International Booker Prize campaign is called ‘Fiction beyond borders’. It is a celebration of the way translated fiction opens us up to different experiences and perspectives, creating connections across continents. The campaign, which also celebrates the 10th anniversary of the prize, invites readers around the world to come together and explore this year’s nominated books – and the previous 10 winners – united by a shared love of great fiction.  

Chinese heritage food lifestyle brand Poon’s London is generously hosting this year’s judging panel at its Somerset House restaurant for the key judging meetings. The longlist was decided in the Drawing Room. Watch campaign launch films here. 

The longlist features previous International Booker Prize nominees, authors celebrated in their home countries and beyond, and emerging talent. As well as three debut novels (The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre and She Who Remains by Rene Karabash), the list features five authors who have been shortlisted and one who has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize previously (Gabriela Cabezón Cámara shortlisted for The Adventures of China Iron in 2020;  Mathias Énard shortlisted for Compass in 2017; Ia Genberg shortlisted for The Details in 2024;  Daniel Kehlmann shortlisted for Tyll in 2020; Marie NDiaye longlisted in 2016 for Ladivine; and Olga Ravn shortlisted in 2021 for The Employees).   

Two authors are longlisted for books published decades ago in their original languages. The Witch by Marie NDiaye was originally published in French in 1996, whilst first-time nominee Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men was published in Persian in 1989 – a gap of 30 and 37 years respectively between original publication and International Booker Prize recognition.  

The longlist also features authors who have won and been recognised by the biggest global literary prizes. They include:  

• Anjet Daanje, whose latest book, The Song of Stork and Dromedary, won the 2023 Libris Literature Prize, the most prestigious award for Dutch literature, and the Boeekenbon Prize, the Netherlands’ other major literary award — the first time that the Libris and Boekenbon prizes have been won by the same book. It is a bestseller in her home country, selling over 100,000 copies. The US edition of this translation of The Remembered Soldier was a finalist for the National Book Award for Translated Literature 2025 and was included in The New York Times’ 100 Notable Books of 2025.
• Writer and translator Mathias Énard, the author of 10 previous novels – six of which have been translated into English – as well as a poetry collection, a graphic novel, and a work of non-fiction. His fiction has won several of Europe’s top awards, including the 2015 Prix Goncourt and the 2017 Leipziger Book Award for European Understanding. He is currently writer in residence at the Prado Museum, Madrid as part of a joint initiative between the museum and the Loewe Foundation.
• Ia Genberg, who is the author of four books which feature regularly on Sweden’s bestseller lists. The Details was a winner of the country’s top fiction award, the August Prize, and has since sold in 39 territories around the world.
• Rene Karabash, who was awarded the 2019 Elias Canetti Prize, Bulgaria’s most prestigious literary award for her debut novel, She Who Remains. It has been translated into over a dozen languages, and a film, adapted by the author, is set to be released in 2026.
• Daniel Kehlmann, who is the author of six novels and has won numerous prizes, including The Kleist Prize and the Thomas Mann Prize. His sixth novel – second translated into English – Measuring the World was translated into more than 40 languages and is one of the biggest successes in post-war German literature. The Director was featured as a pick for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Book Club in 2025.
• Brazilian writer and scriptwriter Ana Paula Maia, who is the author of seven novels and has won the Prêmio São Paulo de Literatura: Melhor Romance do Ano prize two years in a row; in 2018 for her novel Assim na Terra como embaixo da Terra and in 2019 for Enterre Seus Mortos.
• Playwright and novelist Marie NDiaye, who published her first novel at 17 and went on to win the Prix Femina in 2001 (for Rosie Carpe) and the Prix Goncourt in 2009 (for Three Strong Women). She has been recognised for her entire body of work – she was shortlisted for the previous incarnation of the International Booker Prize in 2013 and was awarded the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar in 2020.
• Yáng Shuāng-zǐ – the English language translation of Taiwan Travelogue is already a prize winner, having won the National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024.
• Olga Ravn, who is one of Denmark’s most celebrated contemporary authors. Her novel The Employees was shortlisted for the Ursula K.Le Guin Prize and longlisted for the National Book Awards and the Dublin Literary Award, whilst My Work won the Politikens Literature Prize in 2021. 

The authors’ achievements and legacy extend beyond the world of books. Argentina’s Gabriela Cabezón Cámara is an environmental activist and a co-founder of the feminist movement Ni una menos. German author Shida Bazyar worked in youth education for many years. Bulgaria’s Rene Karabash is the winner of several international acting awards and is also a poet and playwright. Taiwan’s Yáng Shuāng-zǐ is a writer of manga and video game scripts. Olga Ravn’s novel My Work led directly to changes in Denmark’s maternity rights. Matteo Melchiorre is the director of the Library of the Museum and Historical Archive of Castelfranco Veneto and a historian of mountains and forests.  

Iran’s Shahrnush Parsipur began her career as a fiction writer and producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. In the 1980s, she was imprisoned in Iran for nearly five years, without being formally charged. Soon after her release, she published Women Without Men and was jailed again, for her frank and defiant portrayal of women’s sexuality in her writing. The book became an underground sensation and was translated into several languages around the world, though it has been banned in Iran since 1989, along with all of her other work.  

Five of the author-translator pairings have been nominated before (Mathias Énard and Charlotte Mandell for Compass; Ia Genberg and Kira Josefsson for The Details; Daniel Kehlmann and Ross Benjamin for Tyll; Marie NDiaye and Jordan Stump for Ladivine; Olga Ravn and Martin Aitken for The Employees). Several have longstanding partnerships: Charlotte Mandell has translated five out of the six of the English language publications of Mathias Énard’s novels; The Director is Ross Benjamin’s third translation of Daniel Kehlmann’s books; and The Witch marks the eighth translation of Marie NDiaye’s into English by Stump. 

The longlist features seven translators previously nominated for the prize (Martin Aitken, Ross Benjamin, Kira Josefsson, Charlotte Mandell, Ruth Martin, David McKay and Jordan Stump). In addition to the prizes previously won by the authors, many of this year’s longlisted translators have been rewarded for their work, including: 

• Martin Aitken, who is an acclaimed translator of many Scandinavian writers, including Karl Ove Knausgaard, received the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Nadia Christensen Prize in 2012, the PEN America Translation Prize in 2019 and the US National Translation Award in Prose in 2022.
• Ross Benjamin, who was the recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim fellowship, and was awarded the 2010 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator’s Prize for his rendering of Michael Maar’s Speak, Nabokov.
• Antonella Lettieri, who was the National Centre for Writing’s Emerging Translator Mentee for Italian in 2023 and won the John Dryden Translation Competition in the same year.
• Charlotte Mandell – a translator of over 50 books of fiction, poetry and philosophy from French – whose translation of Compass by Mathias Énard was the recipient of the 2018 ALTA National Translation Award in Prose. She was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2021 and has received the Thornton Wilder Translation Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
• Jordan Stump, whose translation of Jardin des Plantes by Claude Simon won the 2001 French-American Foundation translation prize, and was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres in 2006. 

Five of the translators have their own writing careers: 

• Izidora Angel is completing her debut memoir, Solomon’s Daughter, first excerpted in The American Scholar.
• Lin King’s fiction writing received the PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her debut novel, Weeb is forthcoming.
• Robin Myers is a poet.
• Kira Josefsson, who lives in New York, writes on US issues in the Swedish press.
• Padma Viswanathan’s novels have been published in eight countries and shortlisted for the PEN USA Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and others. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville. 

The longlisted publishers range from small specialist independents to the biggest international conglomerates, with six independents representing seven of the titles on the list, including returning publishers Charco and Peirene, and Foundry Editions, nominated for the first time. Last year’s winning publisher, And Other Stories (with Heart Lamp, written by Banu Mushtaq and translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi) is in the running again this year. Fitzcarraldo Editions, winners of the prize in 2018 and most nominated imprint in International Booker Prize history, is longlisted for the 17th time. Scribe UK is represented twice. Penguin Random House is represented three times (Harvill, Viking and Penguin International Writers) as is Hachette (with MacLehose Press, riverrun and Wildfire).  

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin  

 ‘Through cycles of exile and return, we follow an Iranian family across four decades – and learn what it means to always live in hope. The pages pulse with heartache and humour’  

We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers  

‘This fiercely imaginative reworking of colonial history gives voice to a 17th century figure in the depths of the South American jungle. At once playful and devastating, tender and enraging’   

The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay  

 ‘A soldier without his memory; a wife in search of her missing husband. The big question at the heart of this superb novel is: how far humans will go in order to love?’  

The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell  

‘A man and woman escape an undefined war; a conference celebrates a mathematician’s life. Both raw and refined, The Deserters weaves together two contrasting stories of hope and survival’  

Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson  

‘In five profound and breathtakingly original stories, money makes the world go round – and Genberg has a clear-eyed vision of how. The writing zings in all the right places’  

She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel  

‘In a mountain village governed by archaic laws, a teenage girl swears a vow of chastity to escape an arranged marriage. Told with understated poetry, this is an unforgettable modern fairytale’    

The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin  

‘A juggling act of wit and gravity, The Director performs a literary panning shot over the career of a real-life German filmmaker and asks: where is the line between survival and collaboration?’  

On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan 

‘Set in a remote penal colony, this vivid and haunting novel unfolds in a landscape where punishment has replaced justice. A stark, unsettling exploration of power and corruption’  

The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri  

‘A feud between two men set in a claustrophobic village in the Dolomites slowly escalates. Wonderfully evocative and packed full of plot twists, this is storytelling at its best’  

The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump  

‘A long-suffering housewife inducts her daughters into a secret practice passed down by the women in her family: witchcraft. The language in this novel is exquisite; The Witch is pure magic’  

Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh  

‘Against the backdrop of revolution, we follow the lives of five women as they shed their old lives like snakeskin. Parsipur’s layered tales beckon us into a world touched with fable and myth’  

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken  

‘Set during the witch trials of 17^th century Denmark, this haunting, gripping and singular novel – viewed largely from the perspective of a wax doll – cast a spell on us’  

Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King  

‘In 1930s Taiwan, a Japanese author develops complex feelings towards her local interpreter. With metafictional twists, this is both a delicious romance and an incisive postcolonial novel’  

Further reading on thebookerprizes.com: 

• What our judges said about the longlist
• Interviews with the judges 

This year marks 10 years since the announcement of the first winner of the International Booker Prize in its current form. 

The first winner, in 2016, was The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated from Korean by Deborah Smith. Since then, the prize has promoted 10 winners in 10 languages from Arabic to Polish, Bulgarian to Kannada. Four authors recognised by the International Booker Prize in that time have gone on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature: Han Kang, Jon Fosse, Annie Ernaux and Olga Tokarczuk. The prize has also helped to drive a boom in translated fiction in the UK: sales have doubled since it launched. Visit thebookerprizes.com to see all 10 winners. 

International Booker Prize 10th anniversary celebrations include a one-off public event at London’s Southbank Centre in May and a readers’ poll to find a favourite winner from the last decade. Readers can vote in the poll until midday on Tuesday, 21 April 2026 on the Booker Prizes website here. The winner will be revealed in early May.  

The Booker Prize Foundation is a charity partner of ethical online bookshop BookKind. To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the International Booker Prize, you can enjoy a range of discounts on prize-winning titles at BookKind, plus this year’s longlist. 10% of every purchase is donated to the Booker Prize Foundation, supporting our work to help readers and writers of the future. 

• International Booker Prize 10th anniversary event in the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, London:  Friday, 8 May 2026, 7.30pm BST 

Readers are invited to celebrate a decade of the International Booker Prize in an event that will feature special guests, to be announced in due course. Tickets are available now at southbankcentre.co.uk  

• International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist readings event, in Bristol Beacon’s Lantern Hall, Bristol: Friday, 15 May 2026, 6.30pm BST 

International Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted authors and translators will read from and discuss their nominated books at this annual event, which is this year being held in Bristol for the first time. Run in partnership with the Translated By, Bristol festival of translation, it will take place the weekend before the winner of the International Booker Prize 2026 is announced. Tickets are on sale on Bristol Beacon’s website here

• International Booker Prize 2026 winners announced: Tuesday, 19 May 2026 BST 

The announcement of the winners of the International Booker Prize 2026 will take place at a ceremony and dinner held at Tate Modern in London.   

The winner will also be announced via a press release, on a livestream from the event and on the Booker Prizes website and social media channels. 

• Winners’ event at Waterstones Piccadilly, London with Natasha Brown: Thursday, 21 May, 6.30pm BST 

The International Booker Prize 2026 winning author and translator will appear in their first public event after the announcement, in conversation with this year’s Chair of judges and Booker Prize-longlisted author Natasha Brown at Waterstones’ flagship Piccadilly bookshop. 

Tickets are on sale on the Waterstones’ website here  

• International Booker Prize 2026 winners’ event at Hay Festival, Hay-on-Wye: Sunday, 24 May 2026, 5.30pm BST 

Booker Prize Foundation Chief Executive Gaby Wood will be joined by one of this year’s judges, author and International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator, Sophie Hughes, in conversation with the winning author and translator of the International Booker Prize 2026. 
 
Tickets are on sale on the Hay Festival website here 

The International Booker Prize continues to build in global importance each year. The 2026 winners can expect a worldwide readership and a significant increase in profile and sales, including in the author’s home country.   

The announcement of the 2025 winner, Heart Lamp, written by Banu Mushtaq and translated by Deepa Bhasthi – the first collection of short stories to win the prize and the first translated from Kannada – was reported in over 1,826 pieces of media coverage across 60 countries around the world in the week after its win. The winners’ speech had over 30 million views on the Booker Prizes’ social channels. The book rapidly sold out in the UK in the subsequent days, with the UK publisher And Other Stories immediately reprinting 40,000 copies. In December 2025 it was a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime pick.  

According to And Other Stories, sales of the paperback have increased by 507% since it won the International Booker Prize 2025. Prior to the winner announcement in May 2025, it had sold 5,100 copies in the UK; it has now sold over 31,000 copies. Prior to its longlisting, translation rights to Heart Lamp had been sold in eight languages, seven of which were Indian subcontinent languages. It has now sold a total of 30 languages, 13 of which are Indian subcontinent languages. 

Premier: [email protected] / Hannah Stockton +44 (0)77 8070 5086