This year’s ‘Booker Dozen’ has been revealed – 13 books by novelists who ‘brilliantly muster the power of words to take the reader to new places, to see old places from new angles, to change minds’, according to Mary Beard, Chair of the judges.
Written by authors representing seven nationalities and three continents, the longlist transports readers from a hospital in Mexico City to the Kent seaside in a post-apocalyptic Britain; from the barren hillsides of the Outer Hebrides to the criminal badlands of West Dublin; from Kingston, Jamaica in the late 1980s to coastal Massachusetts in the run-up to the 2024 US election; from an unnamed medieval court to a prison cell that defies explanation.
Tonally diverse, the books abound with humour and heartbreak, satire and surreality. There are fresh takes on dystopian sci-fi, royal history, the crime thriller and the campus novel. They are about memory, mortality, metamorphosis and murder; about old lives and new worlds; about the limits of human understanding; about reconciliation and retribution; about the lengths we go to in order to survive; and about the many ways we reckon with the past.
Switzy by Emma Cline
‘Great books have never been written to a single formula,’ said Mary Beard, Chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judges. ‘We are confident that our longlist of books has something for everyone.
‘There’s the funny and the unsettling (and in some cases the funny and unsettling); there’s dystopian fantasy and domestic drama; there’s the gritty and the magically mysterious; there are some that will please and some that may shock. And they are set anywhere and everywhere: Ireland and Italy, Mexico and Massachusetts, Jamaica and the Hebrides, universities, private planes and pubs, past, present and future. But there’s one thing they all share. Every writer on our longlist brilliantly musters the power of words on the page to take the reader to new places, to see old places from new angles, to change minds.’
If you’re wondering which of the longlisted books to read first, the judges have summarised each of the 13 novels – and told us what they loved about them.
Chosen from 163 books written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026, this year’s longlist contains a mix of fresh talent and established voices; up-and-coming writers and others who are deep into their careers.
There are three previous nominees, including two previous winners. There’s a debut novel by a 28-year-old and the 13th novel by an 81-year-old. There are books by poets, critics and playwrights – as well as by an ex-child actor and a former competitive trampolinist. Here’s the lowdown on this year’s ‘Booker Dozen’, which includes facts, stats – and of course, the gossip…
We’re delighted to be a charity partner of ethical online bookshop BookKind. Buy any Booker Prize 2026 longlisted title from BookKind and save 10%, plus you’ll receive a free copy of All Around the World, the new Booker Prizes Quick Read title. Better still, BookKind will donate 10% of the value of your purchase to the Booker Prize Foundation, helping us support readers and writers of the future.
We can’t wait to hear what you think of this year’s longlist. Have you read any of the books already? Which novels are you most excited about, and which one will you read first? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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