An admission: we’ve been a little tired this week. As we write to you, London is emerging from an unseasonal heatwave. Everyone knows British people talk about the weather all the time, but this week we’ve had good reason. Wednesday saw record-breaking UK temperatures for May (35C): it was warmer here than Brazil, Germany, Bulgaria, Iran and Taiwan, among many other places. No wonder the pace of office life at Booker Prizes HQ (huge windows, no air-con) has been slightly slower than usual.

We have, however, been busy reflecting on our highlight of 2026 so far: last week’s glitzy and joyful International Booker Prize ceremony at Tate Modern, which saw Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated by Lin King, become the first book translated from Taiwanese Mandarin to win the International Booker. If you missed our livestream, you can watch the winning moment – and the winners’ speeches – here. We’ve posted some photos from the ceremony below, too.

And if you haven’t yet read the book and would like to discover more about it, you’ll find plenty of resources on the Booker Prizes website, including an extract to whet your appetite, interviews with the author and translator, and a comprehensive reading guide, full of insights, information and discussion points.

Find out more

The International Booker Prize 2026 ceremony in pictures

Booker-nominated novels that are perfect for foodies

Some authors can make us feel hungry with words alone, vividly describing dishes that will make your stomach rumble. Food in books often has a symbolic meaning, too, used to express love, gain favour, create a sense of comfort or explore cultural identity.

Taiwan Travelogue, winner of this year’s International Booker Prize, is, among many things, a mouthwatering account of a culinary journey through late 1930s Taiwan. The judges praised the book’s ‘sumptuous food writing, laugh-out-loud dialogue and metafictional twists’, describing it as ‘both a delicious romance and an incisive postcolonial novel’. And it’s not the only book in the Booker Library with food at its heart.

Whether it’s rice noodles in a pork-bone broth, a roast turkey dinner, otter with lobster sauce, or kipper fillets with lemon juice, the 11 Booker-nominated novels on this list describe a range of delicious, unusual and occasionally disastrous meals. We’ve even suggested recipes to complement each book, inspired by the dishes they describe – although we recommend you try some of them at your own risk.

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Booker-nominated books that explore sapphic love

Taiwan Travelogue – which explores the love between two women through food, language and history – has also inspired our second reading list this week.

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and Lin King’s win prompted us to look through the Booker Library and delve into some of its best explorations of sapphic love. With Pride Month just around the corner, what better time to profile these books.

From Victorian England to 1930s Taiwan – and from the Netherlands in the mid-20th century to modern-day Albania – these Booker- and International Booker-nominated novels don’t just span history and geography, they also chart intricate emotional depths.

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International Booker Prize nominees on their favourite childhood reads

As International Booker Prize season draws to a close, our attention will soon be shifting towards our two other prizes. The longlist for the Booker Prize 2026 will be announced in less than two months’ time (on 28 July), and we’re hard at work planning our inaugural Children’s Booker Prize, the shortlist for which will be announced on 24 November.

With the latter in mind, we asked authors and translators shortlisted for the International Booker in 2025 and 2026 to tell us about the books that ignited their love of reading when they were children. Here’s what they said.

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Your last chance to enter our Children’s Booker Prize child judge competition

There are only a few days left to enter our competition to help us find three child judges for the inaugural Children’s Booker Prize. We’re looking for three children, aged between eight and 12 years old and living in the UK, to join our adult judges – Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Lolly Adefope and Sanchita Basu De Sarkar – in choosing the winner from a shortlist of eight books later this year. The process will ensure the winning book is a recommendation from young readers to their peers.

Parents, carers and educators have until Tuesday 2 June to enter the competition on behalf of their children, pupils and young people.

The successful child entrants will each get: the eight shortlisted books to read and keep; a judges’ medal; a trip to London for a fun day choosing the winner with the adult judges; a bespoke portrait by Beano illustrator Nigel Parkinson; a Beano comic strip capturing their judging experience; and another trip to London for the Children’s Booker Prize 2027 ceremony at Young V&A, which will feature a red carpet with VIP guests, entertainment stations, and the chance to present the winner/s with their trophy live on stage.

The three child judges will be announced alongside the shortlist on Tuesday, 24 November 2026. Good luck!

Enter our competition

Have you read Taiwan Travelogue and do you think it’s a worthy winner? Could you recommend any other works of fiction for foodies, or novels that explore sapphic love? What was your favourite childhood read? Let us know in the comments!

Taiwan Travelogue has tonight won the International Booker Prize 2026, at a ceremony held at Tate Modern in London.

The £50,000 prize is split 50:50 between author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King, giving each writer equal recognition.

Announcing the winner, Chair of the 2026 judges Natasha Brown said, ‘Taiwan Travelogue pulls off an incredible double feat: it succeeds as both a romance and an incisive postcolonial novel. As judges, we’ve enjoyed rich discussions about the many layers of this book. It’s a captivating, slyly sophisticated novel.’

Here’s everything you need to know about the winning book, its author and translator.

Why did Taiwan Travelogue win?

Chair of the 2026 judges Natasha Brown said:

‘Can love overcome a power imbalance? Taiwan Travelogue, winner of the International Booker Prize 2026, teases out the nuances of this question against a backdrop of 1930s Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule.

‘Taiwan Travelogue follows Aoyama, a well-meaning author from Japan, and her Taiwanese interpreter, Chizuru, on a government-sponsored tour of Taiwan. From their first meeting, sparks fly between the two women. The power dynamics inherent to their burgeoning relationship, however, prove difficult to navigate. Chizuru is a cipher: enchanting, yet unknowable. She resists all of Aoyama’s efforts to pierce her carefully-constructed mask of professionalism.

‘This book doesn’t shy away from the complexities (both real and fictional) of its journey into the English language. Instead, it uses the hallmarks of a more traditional text – introductions, footnotes, afterwords – to wrap an intriguing metafictional layer around its core love story. Lin King’s deft translation perfectly conveys the nuances of the novel’s narrative voices.’

What is Taiwan Travelogue about?

Disguised as a translation of a rediscovered text by a Japanese writer, Taiwan Travelogue is a bittersweet story of love between two women, nested in an artful exploration of language, history and power.

It’s May 1938. The young novelist Aoyama Chizuko has sailed from her home in Nagasaki, Japan, and arrived in Taiwan. She’s been invited there by the Japanese government ruling the island, though she has no interest in their official banquets or imperialist agenda. Instead, Chizuko longs to experience real island life and to taste as much of its authentic cuisine as her famously monstrous appetite can bear.

Soon, a Taiwanese woman – who is younger even than she is, and who shares the characters of her name – is hired as her interpreter and makes her dreams come true. The charming, erudite, meticulous Chizuru arranges Chizuko’s travels all over the Land of the South and also proves to be an exceptional cook.

Over scenic train rides and braised pork rice, lively banter and winter melon tea, Chizuko grows infatuated with her companion and intent on drawing her closer. But something causes Chizuru to keep her distance. It’s only after a heartbreaking separation that Chizuko begins to grasp what the ‘something’ is.

Who are the author and translator?

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ is a Taiwanese writer of fiction, essays, manga and video game scripts, and literary criticism. Taiwan Travelogue is her first book to be translated into English. As well as the International Booker Prize 2026, the novel won the National Book Award for Literature in Translation in 2024 and Asia Society’s inaugural Baifang Schell Book Prize. It has been published or is forthcoming in numerous languages including Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Ukrainian, Italian, German, Dutch, Danish, and Greek.

Lin King is a Taiwanese and American writer and translator based in Taipei and New York. Her fiction has appeared in One Story, Boston Review and Joyland, among others, and she has received the PEN/Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her translations include the graphic novel series The Boy from Clearwater by Yu Pei-Yun and Zhou Jian-Xin, as well as Taiwan Travelogue. Her debut novel, Weeb, is forthcoming from Holt.

Taiwan Travelogue is the first book translated from Taiwanese Mandarin to win the International Booker Prize. The winning author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translator Lin King are the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese and American winners of the prize.

What have they said about Taiwan Travelogue?

Yáng Shuāng-zǐ:

‘Both Korea and Taiwan were once colonies of the Japanese Empire, but Koreans seem to feel uniformly resentful of that history, whereas Taiwanese people regard it with a much more conflicted mix of distaste and nostalgia. Using a contemporary Taiwanese lens, I wanted to untangle the complex circumstances that Taiwan’s people faced in the past, and to explore what kind of future we ought to strive toward.

‘Sometime in the second half of 2017, I came up with an outline and wrote the first chapter. I didn’t formally begin working on the project until 18 February, 2019, and completed the first draft on 20 August of the same year. Research for the novel’s central themes of travel and food changed my life in two obvious ways: my savings went down; my weight went up.’

Lin King:

‘I personally dislike historical fiction that is strictly miserable. These stories ring to me as untrue, because no matter how difficult times are, I believe that humans always manage to find flickers of levity and deep wells of love.

‘Were Taiwan’s peoples oppressed and mistreated under Japanese rule? Yes, but that does not mean their identities and personalities were bulldozed over by their suffering. There was still humour, good food, movies, school, petty fights, and romance. To suggest otherwise is to reduce a culture to its trauma. That’s what I appreciate about Taiwan Travelogue.

‘I worked very closely with my editor at Graywolf [the book’s US publisher], Yuka Igarashi, who trusted me to run wild with a complex mix of languages, notations, and footnotes. We took a maximalist approach, broke countless translation “rules”, and ended up with an experimental, multilayered work that we can be proud of.’

Read the full interview

What have the critics said?

Talya Zax, The Atlantic

‘Layers of commentary serve to make the story’s emotional center more difficult to access, and more fulfilling once you’ve earned it… A straightforward story surrounded by many twisting layers of mystery.’

Marcie Geffner, Washington Independent Review of Books

‘In the end, Taiwan Travelogue is much more than a feast for foodies or a tale for armchair travelers. It’s a journey into the hearts of two unforgettable women who may or may not be able to reconcile friendship, perhaps even love, with the enormous gap in their social status and the vast cultural differences of their lives.’

Lauren Yu-Ting Bo, Words Without Borders

‘Taiwan Travelogue is a fearless record of a complicated time in Taiwan’s history. It not only captures the physical details of the period of Japanese colonization—“leather oxfords and wooden geta,” majolica tiles, and an overall merging of Chinese, Japanese, Indigenous, and Western cultures—but also the difficult social experiences of the people who lived through it.’

Read more reviews

Watch Kae Alexander read from Taiwan Travelogue

Read an extract from Taiwan Travelogue

“Hold on. What’s going on here?” 

I couldn’t help but voice the thought out loud. 

For, in that moment, I seemed to have been transported back into the midst of Shōkyokusai Tenkatsu’s Magic Troupe.

I’d crossed paths with Tenkatsu’s troupe long ago, before I’d started high school. They had been on tour, and on the day they arrived in Nagasaki, my aunt Kikuko and I happened upon the opening parade.  

Read the full extract

Buy the book

We’re a charity partner of ethical online bookshop BookKind. You can enjoy a range of discounts on International Booker Prize-winning titles, including an exclusive 2026 shortlist bundle offering over 20% off the recommended retail price. Plus, 10% of the value of your purchase will be donated to the Booker Prize Foundation, helping fund our work to support readers and writers of the future.

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Have you read Taiwan Travelogue or is it on your TBR pile? We’d love to know your thoughts on this year’s International Booker Prize winner in the comments below.

It’s only a few days now until the International Booker Prize 2026 ceremony at London’s Tate Modern, where this year’s winning book will be revealed. Join us online on Tuesday, 19 May if you can! We’ll be sharing red-carpet highlights across our socials before the big reveal. Then, from 10:05pm BST, we’ll be live-streaming the winner announcement on our YouTube channel. We’ll be sharing the winner news here on Substack, too.

In the meantime, we’ve got three excellent articles for you this week:

• Sophie Hughes – literary translator and International Booker Prize 2026 judge – explains how to fit more fiction into your life, precisely when you think you can’t

• Fiammetta Rocco – Emeritus Director of the International Booker Prize – examines how indie publishers have become the cornerstone of the International Booker Prize

• And finally, this year’s shortlisted authors and translators discuss what ‘fiction beyond borders’ (the 2026 prize’s campaign theme) means to them

Scroll down for a gallery of gorgeous pics from last week’s International Booker Prize 10th anniversary celebration, and for a reminder about this evening’s shortlist readings, which we’ll be livestreaming from 6.30pm BST.

Sophie Hughes on finding time to read more

‘Reading 128 works of translated fiction as an International Booker Prize 2026 judge roughly equated to finding four or five extra hours in my day, every day, for half a year. Friends would ask me if I’d lost my mind when I spelled it out to them…

‘Having found quite a lot of time this year for reading, here is some cautiously tendered advice, hopefully feasible for most people who want to read more. It also happens to be one method by which I not only read but also engaged with every one of this year’s submissions.’

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How independent publishers have become the cornerstone of the International Booker Prize

‘The aim is to publish books and authors we believe in: ambitious, innovative, contemporary… The point was, from the very beginning, to take risks’ – Jacques Testard, publisher, Fitzcarraldo Editions

Fiammetta Rocco takes a deep dive into who is publishing translated fiction in the UK now, revealing that the majority of publishers submitting books for the International Booker Prize are independent ones. In this piece, publishers and editors talk about passion, risk-taking, and how indie presses have helped shape the UK’s translated fiction market.

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‘Fiction that has travelled beyond borders puts us into a visceral conversation with our fellow humans’

For this year’s prize, we chose ‘Fiction beyond borders’ as our theme. We wanted to celebrate the way translated fiction opens us up to different experiences and perspectives, creating connections across continents. We asked the authors and translators shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 what ‘fiction beyond borders’ means to them. Here’s what they said.

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Celebrating 10 years of the International Booker Prize

Last Friday we hosted a special International Booker Prize 10th anniversary event at the Southbank Centre in London. Singer-songwriter and founder of Service95 Dua Lipa opened the evening with a speech on the power of translated fiction, before translators Deepa Bhasthi (2025 winner) and Daniel Hahn (a three-time nominee and 2017 judge) discussed the art of translation.

Author David Diop (2021 winner) and historian Olivette Otele (2021 judge) spoke about At Night All Blood is Black and the nuances of thinking and writing in different languages. And publisher Jacques Testard and agent Laurence Laluyaux were in conversation with our Chief Executive Gaby Wood, talking about how they helped bring the work of Han Kang and Olga Tokarczuk to the UK.

We closed with an extract from the first winner of the International Booker Prize in its current form, The Vegetarian, read by actor Simone Ashley. We’ll be sharing a video of the full event soon.

International Booker Prize shortlist readings – this evening!

Most of the authors and translators shortlisted for this year’s International Booker Prize have now arrived in the UK and are heading west for our annual shortlist readings event, this year held for the first time in Bristol. If you’re also heading to the Bristol Beacon this evening – we’ll see you there! If you’re joining us online, the livestream will start at 6.30pm BST on our YouTube channel.

Watch the livestream

How do you find ways to fit more fiction into your life? What does ‘fiction beyond borders’ mean to you? Who do you think will win this year’s International Booker Prize? We absolutely love hearing from you – share your thoughts and predictions in the comments!

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With less than two weeks until the winner of the International Booker Prize 2026 is announced on 19 May, things are pretty hectic in the Booker offices right now. Not least because we’re celebrating an important anniversary, too!

In 2016, the International Booker Prize evolved into its current form: an annual award for a single book, written in another language and translated into English, and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The award gives equal recognition to authors and translators, with the prize money split 50:50.

Over the past decade, the prize has grown in prominence and is now firmly established as the world’s most influential award for translated fiction. New research compiled for us by NielsenIQ BookData shows that, at the same time, translated fiction has boomed in the UK and is reaching exciting new audiences.

In 2016, 2.9 million works of translated fiction were sold in the UK; by 2025 (the latest year for which data is available) that figure had risen to 3.8 million works. The value of the UK’s translated fiction market rose from £23.2m to £40.7m in that period.

The research also reveals that buyers of translated fiction in the UK skew significantly younger, more male and more diverse than buyers of fiction generally. They are also younger and more diverse than a decade ago. You can dive into more of the data on our website.

Read the research

Your favourite International Booker Prize winner since 2016

As part of our anniversary celebrations, we asked you which winning book from the past decade of the International Booker Prize you liked best. You voted in your thousands and the results are now in: The Vegetarian is the clear favourite, securing almost a third of the votes.

Written by Han Kang and translated from Korean into English by Deborah Smith, The Vegetarian won in 2016, the first year of the prize in its current form. Many of you told us what you loved about it and here are just a couple of reasons why The Vegetarian came out on top:

‘The first time I read The Vegetarian was in one sitting. I was mesmerised; the translation is excellent. It’s a beautiful and bizarre novel that leaves the reader meditating on life, trauma, fragility and ultimately what it means to be human. It also was my introduction to Han Kang. I’ve since read all her works that have been translated into English’ – Lisa

‘One of the most courageous depictions of the way misogyny, family and domestic violence intertwine. Spare but uncompromising prose and a powerful use of anger in literature. Brilliant’ – Tony

What winning the International Booker Prize means, according to previous winners

‘The world can be told in all languages. That is what this prize says. That, it seems to me, is its miracle – to get literature in the top news, to hold a book up high like a shield against disintegration and the erosion of meaning’ – Georgi Gospodinov, author of Time Shelter (2023 winner)

As we look back at the International Booker Prize’s history, we caught up with some of the prize-winning authors, translators and publishers from across the last decade to explore the impact they think the award has had.

We asked the authors and translators to think back to the moment they won and how it felt, and to tell us about the influence it’s had on their careers since. And we asked publishers how the International Booker has shaped the market for translated fiction. Head over to our website to find out what they said.

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Which International Booker Prize winner should you read?

Wondering which International Booker Prize-winning book is best for you? Our personality quiz will help you work out which one should go to the top of your TBR pile.

Take the quiz

International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist readings

The Friday before the winner of the International Booker Prize 2026 is announced, shortlisted authors and translators will read from and discuss their nominated books at our annual live event.

This year the event is being held in Bristol, run in partnership with the Translated By, Bristol festival of translation. Tickets sold out weeks ago but don’t despair – we’ll be livestreaming the event on our YouTube channel. Tune in from 6.30pm BST on Friday, 15 May.

Are you new to translated fiction? Or have you been reading works in translation for a decade or more? We’d love to know how the International Booker Prize has shaped your reading since 2016, and just generally where translated fiction fits into your reading life.

Leave a comment

It’s very much spring here in the UK now – in fact it’s been positively summery recently – so it might seem a little strange that we’ve opted for a book with ‘autumn’ in the title as our Monthly Spotlight for May.

Let us explain. Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym follows four colleagues as they approach retirement: Letty, Marcia, Edwin and Norman. They all work in the same London office and each of them lives alone – unmarried or widowed. As the novel progresses, we learn about the everyday intricacies of their very ordinary lives. Although not explicitly friends, the quartet think of, and depend on, interactions with each other more than with anyone else.

It’s a funny and gentle sort of novel, perfect for a lazy afternoon in the sun, but one with a sharp satirical kick. It will transport you back in time 50 years but will make you think about issues that still very much resonate today: loneliness, life choices, work, friendship, ageism, sexism – the list goes on!

Pym is an interesting character in her own right. She was born in 1913 and died in 1980, and experienced some highs and lows in her writing life. Popular in the 1950s, she was deemed outdated and unpublishable in the 1960s, before experiencing a revival in the late 1970s, not long before her death.

Why Quartet in Autumn also makes sense for May is that Samantha Harvey – whose novel Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024 – has adapted it for the stage, and it opens at the Arcola Theatre in London next week. In an exclusive article for the Booker Prizes website, Harvey tells us why she’d always wanted to write a play and what drew her to adapt Pym’s 1977 Booker-shortlisted novel.

Our Monthly Spotlight for May also includes an in-depth reading guide, an extract from the opening chapter, and a chance to win one of five copies of the novel, plus a gorgeous, limited-edition Booker Prizes tote. Enjoy!

PS: scroll down to find out which book you picked to be our Monthly Spotlight for July.

Samantha Harvey on Quartet in Autumn: ‘It’s a crackling, funny novel and joyful to adapt’

The Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital reveals why she’s always wanted to write a play, and what drew her to adapt Barbara Pym’s Quartet in Autumn for the stage.

‘I’d wanted to write a play for a long time. When I write, I enjoy trapping my characters somewhere – inside a confession box, in a letter from which the letter-writer never escapes, in the prison of a fragmenting mind, in a spacecraft. So writing for the stage made sense to me and felt seductive; this small bit of super-charged square-footage. No room for slack or fluff. But a play about what? I needed an idea that had beautiful, elegant stage-worthiness…’

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Explore our reading guide

Whether you’re new to Quartet in Autumn and wondering where to start, or would like to explore the book more deeply, our reading guide is packed with insights and discussion points. It features a synopsis and outline of the main characters, comments from critics and the book’s author, as well as questions to ponder and suggestions for further reading.

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Read an extract

‘That day the four of them went to the library, though at different times. The library assistant, if he had noticed them at all, would have seen them as people who belonged together in some way. They each in turn noticed him; with his shoulder-length golden hair. Their disparaging comments on its length, its luxuriance, its general unsuitability – given the job and the circumstances – were no doubt reflections on the shortcomings of their own hair.’

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Win a copy of the novel

Your chance to win a copy of Quartet in Autumn, plus a limited-edition Booker Prizes tote bag. Simply enter your details on our website by 12:00 BST on Monday, 1 June. Good luck!

Enter now

Coming soon, this summer

Thanks so much for voting in last week’s poll to pick a Monthly Spotlight for July!

Drum roll please…

The winner, with 44% of your votes, is Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, which was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019. You’ve chosen a subversive neo-noir that’s both thrilling and thought-provoking. We’ll get busy now pulling together a reading guide, extract, competition and other website articles to share with you in a couple of months. We’re excited to get stuck in!

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You’ll find all our previous Monthly Spotlight picks on our website. Let us know what you think of Quartet in Autumn in the comments – whether you’re revisiting the novel or discovering it for the first time.

We’re delighted to announce that the Children’s Booker Prize 2027, supported by AKO Foundation, is now open to submissions from publishers – and a competition to find three child judges is underway.

The new annual prize will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children aged eight to 12 years old, written in or translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The shortlist of eight books will be announced on 24 November 2026, and the winner will be announced on 2 February 2027.

The three adult judges on the 2027 judging panel have now been announced. The multi-award-winning children’s book author and screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce, who is the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate and the inaugural Chair of judges for the prize, is joined by the acclaimed actor, writer and comedian Lolly Adefope, and award-winning children’s bookseller and owner of the Children’s Bookshop in Muswell Hill, London, Sanchita Basu De Sarkar.

Uniquely, the Children’s Booker Prize will be judged by a mixed panel of adult and child judges. Cottrell-Boyce, Adefope and Basu De Sarkar will select a shortlist of eight books. Three child judges – who must be aged between eight and 12 years old and living in the UK – will then join the adult judges in choosing the winning book. The process will give children a direct voice in the outcome, ensuring the winning book is a recommendation from young readers to their peers.

Watch our video

How to become a child judge

Entries for the child judge competition are now invited from parents, carers and educators on behalf of their children, pupils and young people.

The three successful child entrants will each get: the eight shortlisted books to read and keep; a judges’ medal; a trip to London for a fun day choosing the winner with the adult judges; a bespoke portrait by Beano illustrator Nigel Parkinson; a Beano comic strip capturing their judging experience; and another trip to London for the ceremony at Young V&A, which will feature a red carpet with VIP guests, entertainment stations, and the chance to present the winner/s their trophy on stage. 

The three child judges will be announced alongside the shortlist on Tuesday, 24 November 2026. Entries must be received by Tuesday, 2 June 2026.

Find out more

How to enter a book

UK and Irish publishers are now invited to submit their books for the Children’s Booker Prize 2027. Eligible books are those published between 1 November 2025 and 31 October 2026. Key deadlines are staggered between May and June 2026. 

As with the Booker Prize, the shortlist will each receive £2,500 and the winner £50,000, ensuring that children’s prize recipients are given the same level of financial reward and recognition as their counterparts writing fiction for adults. 

The prize is open to authors worldwide, both for books written originally in English and for those translated into English, as long as they are published in the UK and/or Ireland within the eligibility period. This fuses the eligibility of the two existing Booker Prizes.

If a book that has been translated into English wins, the author and translator will share the prize money equally, as with the International Booker Prize. If a graphic novel wins, the author and illustrator will share the prize money equally; if an illustrated book wins, the author and illustrator will share the prize money in a 50:50 or 75:25 split, as determined by the Booker Prize Foundation.

Only publishers can submit entries to the Children’s Booker Prize. Authors, translators, illustrators and agents are not permitted to enter directly.

Find out more

The aims of the prize

The Booker Prizes have rewarded and celebrated world-class talent for over 55 years, helping to shape the canon of 20th and 21st century literature, transforming the careers of writers and building a global community of readers. The Children’s Booker Prize is our first major new prize in two decades, since the launch of the International Booker Prize in its original form in 2005.

The aim of the Children’s Booker Prize is to engage and grow a new generation of readers by recognising and championing the best children’s fiction from writers around the world. Nominated works will join around 700 books in the Booker library.

At least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning children’s books will be gifted to children who need them the most, ensuring that more children can read and own the world’s best fiction.

Find out more

Frank Cottrell-Boyce: ‘Every child deserves the chance to experience the happiness of diving into a great book’

Gaby Wood, Chief Executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, says: 

‘This new prize is underpinned by a social mission: to create future generations of lifelong readers. We feel confident that we can enthuse children if we are armed with the very best. By “best”, we mean books that readers will love, books that can be read over and over again or enjoyed just once. Books that contain great characters, emotion, wit, action, adventure, imagination, magic. Books that take readers to other places – in the world, in their minds or in their hearts.’

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Chair of the Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judges, says: 

‘The Children’s Booker Prize will make it easier for children to find the book that’s right for them. The book that calls to them, that invites them on the adventure. Having children at the judging table will turn the prize into a national reading party (one of the joys of reading is arguing about books!). And – maybe most of all – gifting thousands of copies of the nominated titles will open the door to that party and say, come on in, this is for you.’ 

Lolly Adefope, Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judge, says: 

‘I love that the prize recognises the importance of judging children’s books with the same rigour and respect as the adult fiction prizes and can’t wait to hear the perspectives of my fellow judges, none more so than the child judges whose input matters most of all. As a child I was a voracious reader; much like film and television, the opportunity to be lost within and consumed by a new world is one that should be encouraged for children everywhere.’

Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, Children’s Booker Prize 2027 judge, says:

‘Judging with the children is going to be a completely unique experience, and one of the things I’m most excited about for the Children’s Booker. One of my favourite activities in the bookshop is our book club sessions – children make for the most passionate and opinionated readers, and whenever we sit down and discuss books together, I’m always gaining new perspectives. We all come away buzzing with ideas.’ 

Find out more

We’re so excited to share the launch of the Children’s Booker Prize 2027 with you today! Let us know what you think in the comments, and please tell anyone you think might be interested about our competition to find three child judges.

With our popular Monthly Spotlight series, our aim is to search through the Booker Library and pick out something we think deserves your attention. It might be a winning work that’s celebrating a big anniversary or a hidden gem from one of our longlists. Or a book that just feels right for now, no matter when it was written.

Our current Monthly Spotlight pick is An Awfully Big Adventure, Beryl Bainbridge’s novel about class, the long shadow of war and unrequited first love, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1990. Bainbridge was a Booker Prize favourite, nominated for the award six times. Alas, she never won but said that she was ‘just very pleased to have been noticed’.

We’ve then got Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym lined up for May (timed to coincide with a new stage adaptation, written by Booker Prize 2024 winner Samantha Harvey) and The Van by Roddy Doyle in June (to coincide with the FIFA World Cup), but we’d love your help picking a book for July!

We’ve narrowed it down to three candidates, and now we’d like you to vote for your favourite. So, which one of these Booker-nominated novels would you most like us to dive into this summer, with a reading guide, extract, competition and other website articles?

• A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
  Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2005, this hilarious debut features two feuding sisters who join forces against their ageing father’s glamorous new girlfriend.

• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
  Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2019, this novel is a subversive neo-noir that’s both thrilling and thought-provoking, asking probing questions about sanity, social injustice, animal rights, hypocrisy and religion.

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
  Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2003, this is a murder mystery like no other, following an unusual and brilliant boy as he investigates the unexplained death of a neighbour’s dog.

Vote for the book you’d most like us to spotlight later this summer using the poll below!

The poll will stay open for one week, and we’ll let you know which book wins as soon as we can.

Reading guide: The Testaments

Are you watching The Testaments on Disney+? The series is set more than 15 years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale, and while the theocratic regime of the Republic of Gilead maintains its grip on power, there are signs it is beginning to rot from within. At this crucial moment, the lives of three radically different women converge, with explosive results.

As the new TV series – adapted from Margaret Atwood’s 2019 Booker Prize-winning novel – hits our screens, here is our comprehensive guide, which will provide information, context and inspiration whether you’re new to the book or would like to explore it more deeply.

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All Around the World: Stories by Booker Prize Writers

We’re delighted to announce that we have joined forces with The Reading Agency on their long-running Quick Reads programme, with the aim of giving more adults in the UK access to the world’s best fiction.

Quick Reads are short, affordable books written by bestselling and popular authors in an easy-to-read style. They provide a route into reading for people who are less confident readers or who have lost the reading habit.

All Around the World: Stories by Booker Prize Writers – the first-ever Booker Prizes Quick Read – was announced yesterday, to coincide with World Book Night 2026. It’s a collection of seven short stories, written by Booker Prize- and International Booker Prize-nominated authors, and curated and introduced by Roddy Doyle.

The seven short stories are:

• ‘Until the Girl Died’ by Anne Enright

• ‘Afternoon at the Bakery’ by Yoko Ogawa

• ‘The Buggy’ by Roddy Doyle

• ‘Flight’ by David Szalay

• ‘Filsan’ by Nadifa Mohamed

• ‘No Need to Fear the Depths’ by Andrey Kurkov

• ‘Into the Mud’ by Yael van der Wouden

All Around the World will be published in the UK by Vintage in early June. 10,000 copies will be gifted through libraries and community-gifting partners to adults in the UK who have barriers to reading. The book will also be available to buy for £1 from retailers, including BookKind, the online bookshop that donates 10% of every sale to charity, including us.

Find out more

We’re excited to find out which book you vote to be our Monthly Spotlight for July. The poll’s only open for one week so cast your vote as soon as you can!

It’s that time again! We’re delighted to bring you our brand new set of films, showcasing the six books shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies.

Since 2022, we have commissioned a range of talented directors to create sets of films to celebrate the shortlists for our annual prizes. The films, released in spring (for the International Booker Prize) and autumn (for the Booker Prize), have become highlights of our prize seasons, with the 2025 films viewed more than 100 million times across our social media channels.

The new films feature a line-up of critically acclaimed artists from film, television, stage and music, each performing an extract from the shortlisted books. They are:

• Actor Toheeb Jimoh (Ted Lasso, Industry, The Power), who reads from The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin;

• Musician and actor Jehnny Beth (An Impossible Love, Anatomy of a Fall, Hostage), who reads from She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel;

• BAFTA- and Olivier Award-winning actor Toby Jones (Infamous, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Detectorists), who reads from The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin;

• Actor Xelia Mendes-Jones (Fallout, Havoc, The Wheel of Time), who reads from On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maia, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan;

• Olivier Award-winning actor Indira Varma (The Other Bennet Sister, The Night Manager, Game of Thrones), who reads from The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump;

• Actor Kae Alexander (Black Bag, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Fleabag), who reads from Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King.

The films are directed by Holly Blakey, whose work as a director and choreographer has included collaborations with fashion houses and music artists such as Burberry, Dior, Gucci, and Florence and the Machine. The actors are dressed in a mixture of vintage and contemporary Vivienne Westwood costumes, and the films feature original music composed by Gwilym Gold, as well as elements of dance, choreographed by Blakey.

The films were shot in architecturally striking locations across London’s iconic Southbank Centre, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year.

Be among the first to watch the films here – and don’t forget to let us know your favourites in the comments below. If the films inspire you to pick up this year’s shortlisted books, you can discover more about them over on our website, including extracts, exclusive interviews and reading guides.

Watch the films

Join us for a very special live event

If you’re in London on Friday, 8 May, please join us to celebrate a decade of the International Booker Prize at a unique event with special guests, including Dua Lipa.

This year marks 10 years of the International Booker Prize in its current form – a decade in which the prize has celebrated outstanding writing from around the world, honoured 10 winners in 10 different languages, and driven a significant increase in sales of translated fiction.

We’re celebrating the anniversary with a one-off public event at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, bringing together influential voices from the International Booker Prize’s history, including authors, translators and publishers, and offering an immersive look at how exceptional translated fiction is created and championed.

The evening will open with a special introduction from the Grammy and BRIT Award-winning global superstar and founder of the Service95 Book Club, Dua Lipa, a passionate supporter of translated fiction.

Find out more about the event here, including a link to buy tickets.

Get your tickets

Win a bundle of all 10 International Booker Prize-winning books

As we celebrate a decade of the International Booker Prize in its current form, we’ve been asking you to tell us which of the 10 winning books since 2016 is your favourite, via our latest poll. Everyone who enters will stand a chance of winning a bundle of all 10 prize-winning books.

You only have a few days left to take part, so click here to cast your vote before 12pm BST on Tuesday, 21 April. This competition is open to readers anywhere in the world.

Good luck!

Cast your vote

What do you think of our new films? Which of this year’s shortlisted books is your favourite? Which of our previous winners gets your vote? Let us know in the comments.

An Awfully Big Adventure, our pick from the Booker Library this month, will transport you to Liverpool in the 1950s, where a teenage Stella Bradshaw is hired as assistant stage manager for a somewhat shabby theatre company that’s putting on a production of Peter Pan.

Stella quickly becomes infatuated with the theatre’s director, Meredith – failing to notice that he has no interest in her or any other woman. When the celebrated actor O’Hara arrives to play Captain Hook, it sets in motion a backstage drama of lost innocence, tragedy, and miscommunication.

As Yiyun Li explains in a foreword for a new edition of the novel, published by Daunt Books in the UK and in the US, ‘The book’s title — a case in which a quote from one work fits perfectly as the title of a new creation—comes from Peter Pan’s claim that “to die will be an awfully big adventure”.’

Rich with scandal and intrigue, Beryl Bainbridge’s novel about class, the long shadow of war and unrequited first love was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1990. Bainbridge was a Booker Prize favourite, nominated for the award an impressive six times. Alas, she never won but said that she was ‘just very pleased to have been noticed’.

Our Monthly Spotlight for April includes an in-depth reading guide, an extract from the beginning of the book, and the chance to win a bundle of Booker-nominated books by Beryl Bainbridge, plus a limited-edition Booker Prizes tote.

Bainbridge died in 2010, aged 77. She published 20 novels over her lifetime, as well as short-story collections and non-fiction works. But, beyond An Awfully Big Adventure, which others are worth adding to your to-read list? We’ve put together a handy ‘Where to start with Beryl Bainbridge’ guide to help you decide.

Explore our reading guide

Whether you’re new to An Awfully Big Adventure or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide, featuring insights from critics and the book’s author, as well as discussion points and suggestions for further reading.

Read more

Read an extract

‘At first it had been Uncle Vernon’s ambition, not Stella’s. He thought he understood her; from the moment she could toddle he had watched her lurching towards the limelight. Stella herself had shown more caution. “I’ll not chase moonbeams,” she told him.

‘Still, she went along with the idea and for two years, on a Friday after school, she ran down the hill to Hanover Street and rode the lift in Crane Hall, up through the showrooms of polished piano fortes where the blind men fingered scales, until she reached the top floor and Mrs Ackerley whose puckered mouth spat out “How now brown cow” behind the smokescreen of her Russian cigarettes.’

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Where to start with Beryl Bainbridge

Born in Liverpool in 1932, Beryl Bainbridge returned often to the landscape, emotions, people and experiences of her childhood in her books, though not in an obviously autobiographical vein. Instead, she mixed fact and fiction to potent effect, never losing sight of the importance of telling a good story. She’s known for writing idiosyncratic, macabre, psychologically astute, often hilarious novels. She was nominated for the Booker Prize six times – An Awfully Big Adventure was shortlisted in 1990 – but which of her many books should you read next?

Read more

Win a bundle of Beryl Bainbridge books

To celebrate our Monthly Spotlight for April, this is your chance to win a selection of five Booker-nominated books by Beryl Bainbridge, plus a limited-edition Booker Prize tote bag. Three runners-up will win a copy of An Awfully Big Adventure and a Booker Prize tote. Simply enter your details on our website by 12:00 BST on Tuesday, 5 May. Good luck!

Enter now

You’ll find all our previous Monthly Spotlight picks on our website, as well as a selection of ‘Where to start with…’ guides to some of our most well-known writers. Let us know what you think of An Awfully Big Adventure in the comments – whether you’re revisiting the novel or discovering it for the first time.

To celebrate the announcement of the International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist earlier this week, we’re giving away five sets of the six shortlisted books, plus a limited-edition, money-can’t-buy Booker Prize tote bag, featuring illustrations by artist Iris de Moüy.

Each year the International Booker Prize introduces readers to the best novels and short-story collections from around the world that have been translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

Talking about the shortlist, Natasha Brown, the Chair of this year’s judges, said, ‘With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising.’

The competition to win the shortlist is open to readers anywhere in the world. To be in with a chance of winning, simply enter your details on our website by 12:00 BST on Thursday, 16 April, 2026. Winners will be chosen at random. Best of luck!

Enter now

Find out everything you need to know about this year’s shortlist

The shortlist features stories of a suburban witch, a morally compromised filmmaker, a bloodthirsty prison warden, a sworn virgin with a new identity, a novelist and an interpreter with a shared passion for food, and a multigenerational family of Iranian emigrants.

The six books are written by authors and translators representing eight countries (Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Taiwan, the UK and the United States) and four continents: Asia, Europe, North America and South America.

Head over to our website to discover more about these ‘energising’ novels. You’ll find:

• An ‘everything you need to know’ guide

• What our judges said about the shortlist

• Reading guides for all six books

• Extracts from all six books

• Interviews with the shortlisted authors and translators

Have a lovely weekend; let us know what you’ll be reading!

The shortlist for the International Booker Prize 2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, has now been announced.

The six shortlisted books encapsulate a broad range of international experiences, with many drawing on real moments from history as inspiration.

These novels will transport you from Japan-ruled Taiwan in the 1930s to Nazi-controlled Europe during the Second World War, from magic and domesticity in suburban France in the 1990s to the turmoil and after-effects of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, from a brutal prison colony in a remote corner of Brazil to a strict patriarchal community in the Albanian Alps.

The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist

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

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

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

An ‘energising’ and ‘unmissable’ selection of books

This year’s shortlisted books are ‘energising’ and ‘unmissable’, featuring ‘unforgettable characters’, according to the judges.

Chair of judges, Natasha Brown, explains:

‘Our shortlist offers readers a six-stop tour of highlights from the world of translated fiction.

‘With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality, and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising. Rereading each book, we judges found hope, insight and burning humanity – along with unforgettable characters to whom I’m sure readers will return again and again.

‘Make space on your TBRs; this is an unmissable reading list.’

While they all deserve a place in our to-read piles, which shortlisted novel should go to the very top? The judges have helpfully shared what impressed and delighted them most about each book to help you decide.

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Everything you need to know about this year’s shortlist

We’ve gathered all the facts, stats and gossip on this year’s shortlist into a handy ‘everything-you-need-to-know’ guide. Take a closer look at the six remarkable shortlisted books, their themes, characters, settings and origins. Find out more about the nominated authors and translators, and discover what everyone’s saying about their shortlisted novels.

Read more

Dive into our reading guides

Whether you’re new to the shortlist and wondering where to start, or would like to explore the books more deeply, our reading guides are packed with insights and discussion points. Each guide features a synopsis and outline of the main characters, comments from critics, our judges and the book’s author and translator, as well as questions to ponder and suggestions for further reading.

Read more

Buy the books

We’re 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, including an exclusive International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist bundle offering over 20% off the recommended retail price. Plus, 10% of the value of your purchase will be donated to the Booker Prize Foundation, helping fund our work to support readers and writers of the future.

Shop now

Coming up next…

While the judges begin the intense process of deciding which of the six shortlisted books will win this year’s International Booker Prize (the winning book will be announced on 19 May), we’ll be busy creating our annual shortlist films!

Since 2022, we’ve produced short films featuring high-profile performers reading extracts from our shortlisted books. These films have quickly become one of the highlights of our prize seasons.

Look out for the International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist films in mid-April. As always, we’ll share them on our website, across our socials, and right here on Substack.

And before that, another important highlight is coming even sooner: our shortlist giveaway! We’ll share details of how you can win one of five sets of this year’s shortlisted books, plus a money-can’t-buy Booker Prizes tote, later this week.

Let us know what you think of this year’s shortlist! Have you read any of the shortlisted books already, or other works by the nominated authors and translators? Which books are you most excited about, and what’s going to the top of your TBR pile?

How’s your longlist reading going? Or have you been holding out for the shortlist?

There’s not long to wait now – the International Booker Prize 2026 judges will reveal which books have made it onto their list of six early next week. The shortlist will be announced at 2pm BST on Tuesday, 31 March, on our website, across our socials and right here on Substack.

In the meantime, we have two new and very different reading lists to share with you this week – one inspired by our collaboration with our neighbours Poon’s London, and one all about the mid-life crisis!

From London’s Chinatown to Tiananmen Square, a Chinese-themed Booker Prizes reading list

Over the past few months, the judges for the International Booker Prize 2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, have been busy searching for a longlist, shortlist and winner from the 128 books that were submitted.

As part of that intense selection process, the key judging meetings have been held at the flagship restaurant of Chinese heritage food lifestyle brand Poon’s London – which just happens to be downstairs from our offices at Somerset House.

To celebrate our collaboration with Poon’s, we’ve picked out six books from the Booker Library written by authors with Chinese heritage and spanning over four decades of our prizes.

They include Sour Sweet by Timothy Mo, which follows a Hong Kong Chinese family as they attempt to make a new life for themselves in 1960 London; Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien – a multi-generational story about what happens to artistic expression in times of political turmoil; and Love in the New Millennium by Can Xue, translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, which examines the nebulous, perplexing nature of love in China in the 21st century.

If you happen to be visiting Poon’s in the coming weeks and months, look out for these books on the restaurant’s bookshelves!

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10 Booker Prize-nominated books that explore mid-life crises

No matter your age, it’s hard to deny that the mid-life crisis is having a bit of a literary moment. Several of last year’s Booker Prize-nominated novels, at least in part, featured middle-aged protagonists having a wobble one way or another – Flesh, The Rest of Our Lives, Love Forms, Flashlight, Audition, One Boat, even The Land in Winter. 

It’s long been rich territory for a novel: conflict, regret, the echoing past and the narrowing future – and writers may even draw on their own experience to write about it. Martin Amis said of his novel The Information that it wasn’t about a mid-life crisis, the book was the mid-life crisis.

We’ve picked out 10 books from the Booker Library that take apart a mid-life crisis – and sometimes put it back together again.

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It’s always good to hear from you. Let us know your thoughts – and predictions! – ahead of this year’s International Booker Prize shortlist.

Beyond having access to so many wonderful books, one of the best things about being part of the Booker Prizes editorial team is getting to quiz the International Booker Prize 2026 nominees and share their answers with you.

It’s been fascinating to find out more about who’s behind this year’s longlisted books, to discover what first inspired an author to start writing, and, in turn, what drew the translator to the original text. And, long before that magic happened, to discover which books first ignited their love of reading.

If, like us, you’re a bit nosy, finding out the more everyday details about their lives is a particular joy. We can now picture Ia Genburg writing in the passenger seat of her car, parked up outside a café to borrow its WiFi, and Mathias Énard waking up early to write, ‘when the day is still quiet and language feels malleable’.

It’s interesting to know how a dream helped Gabriela Cabezón Cámara find a voice that gave her novel ‘meaning, love, and light’. And that Shida Bazyar wrote her debut while she was still a student, juggling the mismatch between the world she was creating in her novel and the pubs and parties she’d go to later the same day.

We also asked the nominees why they think translated fiction matters. Their answers offer a sense of strength and hope. As translator David McKay says, ‘Translation is empathy in action: when we translate, we walk in someone else’s shoes and learn to appreciate both their differences from us and our common humanity. The journey changes us, and if we are lucky, the resulting translation will also change its readers, questioning cherished beliefs and opening new horizons.’

You’ll find the Q&As with all 26 authors and translators longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 on our website. Enjoy!

Read the Q&As

Vote for your favourite International Booker Prize-winning book

As we celebrate 10 years of the International Booker Prize in its current form, we’d love to know which of the winning books since 2016 is your favourite, and why. We’re also offering one lucky person the chance to win a bundle of all 10 prize-winning books. To vote in our poll and be in with a chance of winning the book bundle, simply fill out the form on our website by 12:00 BST on Tuesday, 21 April 2026.

Vote now

Coming soon: the International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist

The judges are busy narrowing down their ‘sparkling selection’ of books from a longlist of 13 to a shortlist of six. The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist will be revealed on Tuesday, 31 March. Not long now!

Three more things for the weekend

1. It was Mother’s Day in the UK last Sunday, an excuse to think about some of the mothers found in the Booker Library. This reading list features 10 books that refuse to shy away from the unvarnished reality of motherhood, offering us a mix of the loving and the unpredictable, the wise and the chaotic.

2. St Patrick’s Day earlier this week offered an opportunity to delve into our back catalogue of reading recommendations and explore how the Booker Prize has reflected a new golden age of Irish fiction.

3. And while we’re rooting around in the back catalogue, this reading list featuring eight of the best Booker-nominated books written by poets feels perfect for World Poetry Day on Saturday.

Which books will keep you company this weekend? And do you have a favourite set of answers from the interviews with the International Booker Prize 2026 longlisted authors and translators? Let us know in the comments.

Finding enough time to read, no matter how much we enjoy it, can be tough. Sometimes, as a reader, it’s good to get a bit of a pep talk.

When he won the Booker Prize 30 years ago for Last Orders, Graham Swift was swept up onto the stage to accept the prize and give a speech. He began, ‘I think it’s customary in this situation to offer up thanks. I would firstly like to thank my lucky stars.’

Stars thanked, Swift then explained that he’d like to talk about ‘one special group of people’ upon which books depend: readers.

‘I would like to thank the readers of all novels everywhere… It’s one of the ironies of the writers’ trade that the very people we depend on most, we seldom get to see, let alone meet. And yet we expect from them a remarkable intimacy, that they curl up with us and even take us to bed.’

Swift remarked with some wonder on the ‘intimate, silent, invisible but potentially magical point of contact between the reader and the page’.

Curling up with Last Orders this month has, for us, been pretty magical – transporting us back to England in the 1980s and into the minds of four men on a mission. Published in 1996, the novel follows the men as they gather at a London pub and then travel together to the coastal town of Margate to carry out the last wishes of their dead friend and scatter his ashes into the sea.

As they embark on their journey, each of the men reflects on their past experiences, from fighting in the Second World War to work, marriage, friendship and fatherhood. On the surface a simple tale of an increasingly bizarre day out, the novel explores the complexity and courage of ordinary lives.

Our Monthly Spotlight for March includes an in-depth reading guide, an extract from the opening chapter, and a chance to win one of five copies of the novel, plus a limited-edition Booker Prizes tote.

Now 76, Swift has written 11 novels, three short-story collections and a work of non-fiction to date. But, beyond Last Orders, which others are worth adding to your to-read list? We’ve put together a Where to start with Graham Swift guide to help you decide.

Explore our reading guide

Whether you’re new to Last Orders or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide, featuring insights from critics and the book’s author, as well as discussion points and suggestions for further reading.

Read more

Read an extract

‘Bernie pulls me a pint and puts it in front of me. He looks at me, puzzled, with his loose, doggy face but he can tell I don’t want no chit-chat. That’s why I’m here, five minutes after opening, for a little silent pow-wow with a pint glass. He can see the black tie, though it’s four days since the funeral. I hand him a fiver and he takes it to the till and brings back my change. He puts the coins, extra gently, eyeing me, on the bar beside my pint.’

Read more

Where to start with Graham Swift

Graham Swift’s work is praised for its straightforward but powerful portrayal of the changing texture of English life. He believes writing is about ‘harnessing that inexplicable something behind words which gives simple sentences enormous power’. He won the Booker Prize in 1996 with Last Orders and has been nominated two other times – but which of his many books should you read first? Our guide picks out eight of his best works, from the novel about the owner of a sweetshop that launched his career, to a collection of stories that revealed him to be a master of the short form.

Read more

Win a copy of the book

Your chance to win a copy of Last Orders, plus a limited-edition Booker Prizes tote bag. Simply enter your details on our website by 12:00 BST on Thursday, 2 April. Good luck!

Enter now

You’ll find all our previous Monthly Spotlight picks on our website, as well as a selection of ‘Where to start with…’ guides to some of our most well-known writers. Let us know what you think of Last Orders in the comments – whether you’re revisiting the novel or discovering it for the first time.

A certain amount of calm has returned to Booker Prizes HQ after the excitement of last week’s International Booker longlist reveal. As the dust settles and we take lots of deep breaths, the most pressing question remains: which longlisted book to read first?

It’s become a tradition that our editorial team devise a personality quiz to help you decide. We’ve been busy working on that over the last few days and we’re pleased to say it’s now ready to share!

So, do you like your translated fiction to be topical and urgent, or would you rather something that offers an escape from the modern world? What recent films are on your watchlist? Do you prefer long books, short books, or something in between? Tell us what you like best and we’ll recommend a book from this year’s longlist.

Take the quiz

Read extracts from the International Booker Prize 2026 longlist

Once the quiz has suggested which book might be best for you, why not sample some of the opening chapter? We have extracts from all 13 longlisted books, so you can dip in and get a sense of what each one is like.

Read extracts

Win the International Booker Prize 2026 longlist

Our competition to win all 13 books on the longlist, plus gorgeous goodies from Poon’s London, is still open! Head over to our website and enter your name and email address by 12:00 GMT on Thursday, 12 March to be in with a chance.

Enter now

Coming up next week

We’re bringing it to you a bit later than usual, but our Monthly Spotlight pick for March is going to be Last Orders by Graham Swift, which won the Booker Prize 30 years ago in 1996. It’s a book about friendship, fatherhood and identity, following four men as they carry out the last wishes of Jack Dodds, transporting his ashes from London to Margate to scatter them in the sea.

We’ll be sharing a reading guide and extract from the novel next week, as well as a guide to Swift’s best books – he’s written 11 novels, as well as short-story collections and non-fiction. And there will, of course, be an opportunity to win a copy of the novel and a limited-edition Booker Prizes tote. More soon!

Let us know which book our quiz recommends you read first, and if there’s an extract among the 13 that you especially enjoy.

The longlist for the International Booker Prize 2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, was announced on Tuesday. We’re celebrating with a fantastic competition!

Not only do we have five full sets of the longlist to give away, one overall winner will also receive a delicious Poon’s London Heritage Gift Hamper, a £150 Poon’s gift card and a Poon’s Vegetable Guide tea towel, as well as a money-can’t-buy Booker Prizes tote bag, featuring an illustration by artist Iris de Moüy.

Four runners-up will each win the 13 longlisted titles, a Poon’s Vegetable Guide tea towel and a Booker Prizes tote.

Only entrants based in the UK, excluding Northern Ireland, are eligible to win the main prize, for delivery to an address in England, Wales, or Scotland. The runners-up prizes can be delivered internationally.

To be in with a chance, simply enter your details on our website by 12:00 GMT on Thursday, 12 March. Winners will be chosen at random. Good luck!

Enter now

Chinese heritage food lifestyle brand Poon’s London is generously hosting this year’s key International Booker Prize judging meetings at its Somerset House restaurant. The longlist was decided in their beautiful Drawing Room.

While we all get to know the ‘sparkling selection’ of ‘fresh and innovative’ books the judges have handpicked, they’re now focused on narrowing down their longlist from 13 to six. The shortlist will be revealed on 31 March – ink it in your diary. The winner will be announced on 19 May.

Head over to our website to find out everything you need to know about the longlist and what the judges think about each book, as well as to enter the competition!

Have you started reading yet? Any favourites so far? As always, let us know in the comments!

The longlist for the International Booker Prize 2026, supported by Bukhman Philanthropies, has now been announced.

From witchcraft to war, revolution to renewal, magic to murder – and ranging in size from pocket-friendly to doorstopper – this year’s 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.

The books feature memorable characters, including a queer Argentinian conquistador, a morally compromised German film director, a Japanese novelist with a ‘monstrous appetite’, an idiosyncratic Italian aristocrat and a Danish noblewoman accused of sorcery. And they transport readers from a brutal prison colony in the Brazilian wilderness to an Albanian mountain village ruled by ancient laws, from an asylum for traumatised soldiers in Belgium to an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.

The International Booker Prize 2026 longlist

• 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 Taiwanese Mandarin by Lin King

A ‘fresh and innovative’ selection of books

The 2026 longlist features a ‘sparkling selection’ of ‘fresh and innovative’ books that capture the ‘calibre and variety of translated fiction’, according to the judges.

Chair of judges, Natasha Brown, explains:

‘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. 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.’

Our TBR pile just grew 13 books taller. The trouble is choosing which one to read first! Thankfully the judges have shared their thoughts on each nominated book, explaining what it’s about and why they think it’s well worth reading.

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Everything you need to know about this year’s longlist

Chosen from 128 titles translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026, the longlist features 13 superb works of fiction.

Where do this year’s longlisted authors and translators hail from? Which of them have been nominated for the International Booker Prize before? How many of the books are debuts? Which books were published in their original languages over 30 years ago? And who is an award-winning actor as well as a novelist?

We’ve gathered all the facts, stats and gossip on this year’s longlist into an ‘everything-you-need-to-know’ guide.

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Coming up next…

The judges will spend the next few weeks narrowing down their ‘sparkling selection’ of books from 13 to just six. The International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist will then be revealed on Tuesday, 31 March.

In the meantime, we have heaps of things planned and coming soon here on Substack, on our website and across our social channels, including extracts from all the longlisted books, interviews with the nominated authors and translators, a quiz to help you decide which book to read first, and, of course, a chance to win the longlist (and other goodies).

Looking further ahead, the winner of the International Booker Prize 2026 will be announced on Tuesday, 19 May at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London. The announcement will be livestreamed on the Booker Prizes’ channels, and the winning author and translator will receive £50,000, split equally between them.

Buy the books

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

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Let us know what you think of this year’s longlist! Have you read any of the books already, or other works by the nominated authors and translators? Which books are you most excited about, and what will you read first?

Booker Prizes HQ is a flurry of activity right now, as we build towards the big reveal of this year’s International Booker Prize longlist. We’re based at Somerset House (a neoclassical, Georgian-era complex of buildings on the banks of the Thames), and the judges have been having their longlist meetings downstairs, hosted by our neighbours Poon’s London in their gorgeous Drawing Room. We’ve also been filming with the judges over the last few days – there are some behind-the-scenes pictures at the end of this post!

After seven months of deliberation and over 120 books, the judges are now tasked with picking 13 outstanding works of translated fiction – books they believe are worthy of your full and undivided attention. The longlist will be announced next week, at 2pm on Tuesday, 24 February – on our website, across our socials, and right here on Substack.

Ahead of the announcement, we caught up with the judges to ask them how their last seven months have been, and to find out what qualities they’ve been looking for as they select their longlist. They explain how they’ve managed to fit all this reading into their already busy lives, and tell us about the books that have inspired them since childhood.

In a series of Q&As for our website, Chair of judges Natasha Brown and fellow judges Marcus du Sautoy, Sophie Hughes, Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S. Roy reflect on the power of translated fiction to create electrifying connections across continents, and share tips to help the rest of us find time to read more.

Read the interviews

Chair of judges, Natasha Brown: ‘Reading is always an act of border crossing’

‘When we read, we allow someone else’s words to become a part of our own thoughts. I think that makes reading uniquely immersive. Fiction can transport us into different worlds and offer up new ways of looking at the familiar.’

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Marcus du Sautoy: ‘Reading is a muscle – the more you exercise it, the easier it gets’

‘I wish I knew some secret tips to reading over 100 books in seven months, but the truth is I haven’t discovered a formula. It has basically taken over my life. I guess reading, like writing, is a muscle and the more you exercise it, the easier it gets. I can certainly sustain longer periods of reading than I perhaps could at the beginning of this marathon. The one thing that it has achieved is to cure me of my addiction to social media. The first thing I do in the morning is reach for a novel rather than my mobile phone.’

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Sophie Hughes: ‘Reading fiction is a tonic, taking you out of yourself to come back to yourself’

‘You know that feeling when you’re reading a novel or story and something happens or someone says something that resonates with you louder than your own thoughts? I’ve had that sense of electrifying connection multiple times over the last seven months, often while reading books by authors from places and cultures I am not only removed from but totally ignorant of. The books I’ve loved the most have been the ones where, when I least expected it, I’ve thought: we’re thinking the same thing.’

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Troy Onyango: ‘Read everything, everywhere, all at once’

‘Having done this while having a full-time job and running a literary magazine, I can say it’s completely changed my relationship to books and reading forever. I have always thought of myself as a big and fast reader (as I have to read almost all day for work and for the magazine) but this was on another level. It’s like the Olympics! Or the Safari Rally! The trick (if I can call it that) I have found is polyreadership; read everything, everywhere, all at once. Any time you have is for reading.’

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Nilanjana S. Roy: ‘Great fiction takes you to places beyond the reach of maps’

‘We live in a time when old wars and ancient bigotries are, unfortunately, being revived, and when the world can feel fractured and fragmented. I’m a realist, and while I understand that literature might not change geopolitics, it does change hearts and minds. Translations bring us closer together, help us understand and listen to one another; it makes the strange familiar, and a good translation is so often a portal to another realm.’

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Behind the scenes: filming with the judges at Poon’s London

We’ve been filming with the International Booker Prize judges over the last week, and we thought you might enjoy some behind-the-scenes pics from one of our shoots! The beautiful backdrop is the Drawing Room at Poon’s London, which, happily, is just downstairs from the Booker Prizes office at Somerset House.

It’s always good to hear from you. Let us know your thoughts – and predictions! – ahead of this year’s International Booker Prize longlist.

As anticipation builds ahead of the big reveal of this year’s International Booker Prize longlist (less than two weeks away now!) we’re balancing out our nervous excitement with a bit of reflection.

It’s 10 years since the prize evolved into its current form: an annual award for a single book, written in another language and translated into English, and published in the UK and/or Ireland. The award gives equal recognition to authors and translators, with the prize money split 50:50.

A birthday is a reason to celebrate and, in this instance, the perfect excuse to read or revisit all the nominated books from the last decade, especially the winners. But most of us already have towering piles of books we want to read – so why choose translated fiction especially?

Samuel McDowell, publisher at Charco Press, argues that, like all books, translated fiction offers us ‘the opportunity for escapism, for adventure, to have a laugh, and to be provoked… What translation offers on top of this is the ability to experience it all from someone who perhaps has had very different life experiences… It helps us better understand and appreciate each other.’

These are immersive books that create connections, beyond borders. Viv Groskop, an International Booker Prize judge in 2022, says, ‘There’s something magical about translated fiction… It’s one of the most direct and intimate human experiences we can share with someone who has a different native language to us.’

This week, we’ve pulled together a reading list that acts a guide to the 10 books, authors and translators awarded the International Booker since 2016. These are books that are, in the words of the judges, exquisite, surprising, subversive, disturbing, mischievous, gleeful, frightening, playful, luminous and kaleidoscopic. In other words – impossible to resist!

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Which International Booker Prize-winning book is your favourite?

As we celebrate 10 years of the International Booker Prize in its current form, we’d love to know which of the winning books since 2016 is your favourite and why. We’ve set up an online poll, which makes it really easy for you to let us know. We’re also offering one lucky person the chance to win a bundle of all 10 prize-winning books. Head over to our website now to vote in the poll and enter the competition.

Vote now

Celebrating ‘spinster lit’

Unmarried women – so-called ‘spinsters’ – have often been represented unkindly in books, portrayed as undesirable and lonely. But readers are reclaiming the word as a sub-genre of its own; ‘spinster lit’ can be seen as an attempt to challenge misconceptions about the lives of unmarried, often middle-aged women, especially in the mid-to-late 20th century.

Booker-nominated author Barbara Pym has been crowned ‘queen of spinster lit’ by many, as her novels often include unmarried female characters who have rich and vibrant lives.

Ginny Hogan, writing in Electric Lit, said, ‘I see in her characters spinsters of the type I aspire to be: incisive, busy, and fine with or without a partner. Pym was ahead of her time in pointing out how inglorious coupledom was. So ahead, in fact, that we haven’t yet caught up to her.’

As the annual fervour around Valentine’s Day builds once more, we thought we’d celebrate some of the spinsters who play starring roles in Booker-nominated novels. In this reading list you’ll find unattached women pushing up against social and romantic mores and, ultimately, striving to find a way to live on their own terms, whether that’s in England in the 1850s or contemporary Ukraine on the verge of war.

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Three more things for the weekend…

• Emerald Fennell’s provocative adaptation of Wuthering Heights finally opens in cinemas this weekend. Here are eight Booker-nominated books featuring obsessive love, devastating revenge, and, of course, plenty of ghosts – perfect for people who love Emily Brontë’s gothic classic.

• If you’re an Emerald Fennell fan, you might also like this reading list from our back catalogue, chosen especially for fans of Saltburn.

• And if steamy reads are your thing, this one’s for you.

An anniversary offer

If all our talk of award-winning translated fiction has got you in the mood to do some shopping, you might like to know that BookKind is running a special anniversary offer. You can save 15% when you buy three or more International Booker Prize-winning titles, or enjoy 10% off individual books. The online bookshop is also offering fast, free UK shipping; international rates do apply. What’s more, 10% of your purchase will be donated to the Booker Prize Foundation, helping fund our work to support readers and writers of the future.

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What will you be reading this weekend? Let us know in the comments. And don’t forget to vote in our poll and tell us which International Booker Prize-winning book since 2016 is your favourite!

It feels right to immerse ourselves in translated fiction for our February Monthly Spotlight, as we gear up for this year’s International Booker Prize. We wanted to pick out something from the Booker shelves that’s uniquely gripping, but, honestly, we also wanted to find something fairly short: our TBR piles are about to grow 13 books taller on 24 February, when this year’s longlist is announced!

At Night All Blood is Black is a historical novel that’s been called uncanny and incantatory, modernist and mythical, deeply violent yet somehow gentle, too. At 145 pages, it’s slim in size but huge in impact. It won the International Booker Prize in 2021 and cast a spell on our judges, who said it had ‘jangled our emotions and blown our minds’.

The novel – written by David Diop and translated from French into English by Anna Moschovakis – tells the story of Alfa, a young Senegalese soldier in the French army during the First World War.

After his childhood friend Mademba is killed, Alfa determines to avenge his death. But, without his ‘more-than-brother’, Alfa is alone and lost amid the savagery of the conflict and sinks into madness. Written in a series of vignettes, the book intersperses violent scenes with flashbacks to Alfa’s life in Senegal.

It was brilliant to interview both David Diop and Anna Moschovakis for this month’s Spotlight. Both reflected on how the International Booker has shaped their careers, how they feel about the novel five years on from their win, and the conditions they need to write. Diop works longhand, and pen, paper and peace are key. Moschovakis needs coffee, lots of it.

Alongside Q&As with the author and translator, our Monthly Spotlight for February also includes an in-depth reading guide, an extract from the opening chapter, and a chance to win one of five copies of the book.

Do let us know what you think in the comments – whether you’re revisiting the novel or discovering it for the first time.

David Diop: ‘I now have the good fortune of being considered a real writer’

‘The violence Alfa suffers is not only physical – from the brutalities of the war – but also psychological. My main concern was to maintain the violence of this opening throughout the book by employing a rhythm in the writing, rooted in Mademba’s terror in the face of his own death, to convey the terror that overtakes Alfa.’

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Anna Moschovakis: ‘Each book I take on becomes an obsession of sorts’

‘I have not stopped thinking about Alfa and Mademba; they still sometimes appear in my dreams… As the years have passed, these characters – and the whole novel, really – have become internalised points of reference, like locations on the map of my consciousness where important questions or puzzles can be thought.’

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Explore our reading guide

Whether you’re new to At Night all Blood is Black or have read it and would like to explore it more deeply, here is our comprehensive guide, featuring insights from critics and the book’s author and translator, as well as discussion points and suggestions for further reading.

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Read an extract from the opening chapter

‘…I KNOW, I UNDERSTAND, I shouldn’t have done it. I, Alfa Ndiaye, son of the old, old man, I understand, I shouldn’t have. God’s truth, now I know. My thoughts belong to me alone, I can think what I want. But I won’t tell. The ones I might have told my secret thoughts to, my brothers-in-arms who will be left so disfigured, maimed, eviscerated, that God will be ashamed to see them show up in Paradise and the Devil will be happy to welcome them to Hell, will never know who I really am. The survivors won’t know a thing, my old father won’t know, and my mother, if she is still of this world, will never find out. The weight of shame will not be added to the weight of my death. They won’t imagine what I’ve thought, what I’ve done, the depths to which the war drove me. God’s truth, the family honor will be spared, the honor of appearances.’

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Win a copy of the book

Your chance to win a copy of the novel, plus a limited-edition Booker Prize tote bag. Simply enter your details on our website by 12:00 GMT on Monday, 2 March 2026. Good luck!

Enter now

You’ll find all our previous Monthly Spotlights on our website here. We’d love to know what you think of At Night All Blood is Black. Let us know in the comments.