International Booker shortlist

The International Booker Prize has named six finalists for 2026, including Marie NDiaye’s *The Witch*, translated from French by Jordan Stump. (thebookerprizes.com) The shortlist was announced on April 1, 2026, by the Booker Prize Foundation. The winner is scheduled to be named on May 19, 2026, at Tate Modern in London, not May 8. (thebookerprizes.com) The International Booker Prize honors a single work of fiction or a short-story collection translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between May 1, 2025, and April 30, 2026. The £50,000 prize is split equally between the author and translator. (thebookerprizes.com) This is the 10th year of the prize in its current form, which gives equal billing to translators and writers. Each shortlisted title also receives £2,500 for the author and £2,500 for the translator. (lithub.com) The six shortlisted books are *The Impossible Life* by Ahmet Altan, translated by Johanna Schwering; *The Night Is Quiet in Tehran* by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin; *The Director* by Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin; *The Witch* by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump; *Under the Eye of the Big Bird* by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda; and *Taiwan Travelogue* by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King. (thebookerprizes.com) The judges said the shortlist includes books translated from five original languages by authors and translators representing eight nationalities across four continents. The panel was chaired by Natasha Brown and included Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Hughes, Troy Onyango, and Nilanjana S. Roy. (thebookerprizes.com) For *The Witch*, the shortlist puts new attention on a novel first published in French in 1996. The Booker Prize Foundation said the book reached the 2026 shortlist 30 years after its original publication. (thebookerprizes.com) The book follows Lucie, a woman from a line of witches who tries to pass her powers to her twin daughters. The Booker Prize Foundation describes her as “a mediocre witch, in a mediocre marriage,” facing daughters whose powers exceed her own. (thebookerprizes.com) Stump, the translator of *The Witch*, is a professor of French at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The university said his translation was shortlisted for a prize that recognizes fiction translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. (news.unl.edu) The 2026 shortlist was selected from 128 books submitted by publishers, after a 13-book longlist announced on February 24, 2026. The next date on the calendar is May 19, when one author-translator pair will take the prize. (thebookerprizes.com)