International Booker shortlist
The 2026 International Booker Prize announced a six‑book shortlist spanning four continents and offering a £50,000 prize to the author‑and‑translator pairing (npr.org). Notable names on the list include Marie NDiaye, Daniel Kehlmann — who earned his second nomination — and Yáng Shuāng‑zǐ, with books ranging from 1930s Japanese‑controlled Taiwan to revolutionary 1979 Tehran (theguardian.com).
The six shortlisted books are Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran (translated by Ruth Martin), Rene Karabash’s She Who Remains (translated by Izidora Angel), Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director (translated by Ross Benjamin), Ana Paula Maia’s On Earth As It Is Beneath (translated by Padma Viswanathan), Marie NDiaye’s The Witch (translated by Jordan Stump), and Yáng Shuāng‑zǐ’s Taiwan Travelogue (translated by Lin King). (lithub.com) The winner will be revealed at a ceremony on 19 May 2026 at London’s Tate Modern. (thebookerprizes.com) The International Booker’s £50,000 prize is split equally between author and translator for the winning pairing, and each of the six shortlisted titles receives £5,000 (£2,500 to author and £2,500 to translator). (thebookerprizes.com) This shortlist was chosen from a longlist of 13 titles that itself came from 128 books submitted by publishers, with the longlist announced on 24 February 2026. (thebookerprizes.com) Five of the six shortlisted authors are women and four of the six translators are women, and the six books were originally published in Bulgarian, French, German, Mandarin Chinese and Portuguese. (thebookerprizes.com) Two of the shortlisted works are debuts — The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran and She Who Remains — and Marie NDiaye’s The Witch was first published in its original language roughly 30 years ago. (thebookerprizes.com) The 2026 shortlist includes repeat contenders: Daniel Kehlmann and translator Ross Benjamin were previously shortlisted in 2020, Marie NDiaye and Jordan Stump were longlisted in 2016, and Yáng Shuāng‑zǐ’s Taiwan Travelogue won the U.S. National Book Award for Translated Literature in 2024. (thebookerprizes.com)
