The International Booker Prize unveils its 2026 longlist, highlighting a diverse mix of translated fiction that spans decades and continents. The lineup features heavyweights Olga Ravn, Daniel Kehlmann, Ia Genberg, Mathias Énard, and Gabriela Cabezón Cámara among the thirteen authors and translators in the running for a prize that celebrates translated storytelling and marks its tenth anniversary.
This year’s selection forms a true “Booker dozen”: 13 titles in contention, with a £50,000 prize to be shared equally between one author and their translator should they win.
Several veterans return to the longlist, including Ravn, Kehlmann, Genberg, Énard, and Cabezón Cámara, who have each previously reached the prize’s shortlist stage. Notably, Kehlmann’s entry for this year, The Director, translated by Ross Benjamin, draws on the life of director GW Pabst and his connections to the Third Reich. Guardian reviewer Nina Allan described The Director as possessing the dark, shapeshifting mood and glittering unease of a modern Grimms’ fairy tale, calling it Kehlmann’s finest work to date.
Ravn’s The Wax Child, translated by Martin Aitken, represents her fourth novel for the prize and examines real 17th-century Danish witch trials. Witchcraft also appears in the longlist through Marie NDiaye’s The Witch, translated by Jordan Stump, originally published in French in 1996. NDiaye has appeared on the International Booker stage before, including a 2016 longlist and a 2013 shortlisting under the prize’s earlier format.
Another longlisted work published long ago in its original language is Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men, translated by Faridoun Farrokh, which appeared in Persian in 1989. Parsipur’s life includes periods of imprisonment in Iran; upon her release she published this novel, which follows five women who end up living together in a Tehran garden and, since 1989, has faced bans in Iran.
Sweden’s Ia Genberg is represented by Small Comfort, a collection of five interlinked stories translated by Kira Josefsson. Mathias Énard’s The Deserters, translated by Charlotte Mandell, marks Énard’s seventeenth International Booker nomination for Fitzcarraldo, the imprint renowned for its repeated recognition of translated works.
Independent publisher Peirene Press earns recognition for Rene Karabash’s debut, She Who Remains, translated by Izidora Angel. The novel follows a woman who escapes an arranged marriage by taking on the vow of a sworn virgin. Matteo Melchiorre’s The Duke, translated by Antonella Lettieri, also debuts on the longlist. Gabriela Cabezón Cámara is represented by We Are Green and Trembling, translated by Robin Myers, a title that won the U.S. National Book Award for translated literature in the previous year.
Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran, translated by Ruth Martin, completes the slate of longlisted titles for this year. The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje (translated by David McKay), On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia (translated by Padma Viswanathan), and Taiwan Travelogue by Yang Shuang-zi (translated by Lin King) also feature among the longlisted works.
Judges chair Natasha Brown notes that a strong portion of the submissions delve into the harsh realities of war, a thread echoed across the longlist. The roster also traverses intimate neighbourly bickering, enigmatic mountain villages, corporate malfeasance, witchy characters, ill-fated romances, a haunted prison, and cryptic film allusions. The length of the books ranges from compact and portable to substantial doorstoppers, and though several works originate from earlier decades, their storytelling remains vivid and inventive.
The six finalists will be revealed on March 31, each receiving £5,000 (split evenly between author and translator). The winner will be announced on May 19 at a ceremony hosted at Tate Modern in London.
The 2026 panel includes mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, translator Sophie Hughes, and writers Troy Onyango and Nilanjana Roy, who join Brown in judging.
The longlist emerged from 128 titles published in the UK or Ireland between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. Booker Prize Foundation chief executive Gaby Wood notes that submissions came from a record 34 languages, signaling a widening horizon for translated works accessible to English-language readers.
A year ago, Banu Mushtaq’s Heart Lamp became the International Booker Prize’s first short-story collection winner. Past winners include Han Kang, Olga Tokarczuk, and Georgi Gospodinov. Wood also highlighted how several authors recognized by the prize for individual works have later earned the Nobel for their broader bodies of work, citing Han, Tokarczuk, Jon Fosse, and László Krasznahorkai as notable examples.
And this is where the discussion begins: with such a diverse, boundary-p crossing lineup, how should we weigh a single translated work against a broader authorial career? Do you think this year’s entries push the boundaries of what translated fiction can accomplish, or do they risk privileging novelty over lasting impact? Share your thoughts in the comments.
