The Witch makes Booker shortlist

Marie NDiaye’s *The Witch* is on the 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist, putting a 30-year-old French novel into this year’s final six. (thebookerprizes.com) The shortlist was announced in early April by the Booker Prize Foundation. NDiaye is shortlisted with translator Jordan Stump, because the International Booker awards the author and translator together and splits the £50,000 prize equally between the winners. (thebookerprizes.com) *The Witch* was first published in French in 1996 as *La Sorcière*. Its English edition is published by MacLehose Press in the United Kingdom, making it eligible under the prize’s rules for books translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland between May 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2) The Booker organizers described the shortlist as a list of books that “reverberate with history,” but *The Witch* stands out for another reason: it is the oldest book in the field by original publication date. The prize site says the gap between the French original and this shortlist is 30 years. (thebookerprizes.com) That delay reflects how the prize works now. The International Booker no longer honors an author’s body of work; it recognizes a single book in translation, which means older books can enter the race when they finally appear in English in an eligible market. (thebookerprizes.com) The novel itself follows Lucie, a suburban witch in an unhappy marriage who tries to pass her powers to her twin daughters, only to find that their abilities exceed her own. Booker’s reading guide calls it a story about family inheritance, shame, power and female lineage. (thebookerprizes.com 1) (thebookerprizes.com 2) NDiaye is not new to major literary prizes. She won France’s Prix Goncourt in 2009 for *Three Strong Women*, and Booker says she and Stump were previously longlisted together in 2016. (britannica.com) (thebookerprizes.com) This year’s shortlist was chosen from 128 submitted books, then cut from a 13-book longlist announced on February 24, 2026. The winner is scheduled to be announced at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on May 19, 2026. (thebookerprizes.com) For NDiaye, the shortlist brings an early novel back into the center of the English-language literary calendar. For the prize, it is another reminder that translation can change a book’s timeline as much as its language. (thebookerprizes.com)