Two former winners head a Booker shortlist spanning four countries
Marlon James and Douglas Stuart lead six novels in contention for the 2026 Booker Prize, with the winner to be named at Old Billingsgate on 9 November.
The shortlist for the 2026 Booker Prize, announced on 22 September, brings together two former winners, a debut novelist and authors from four countries, with the winner to be announced at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London on 9 November.
The six novels are The End of Everything by M. John Harrison, The Disappearers by Marlon James, Black Bag by Luke Kennard, May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry, The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout and John of John by Douglas Stuart. They were chosen from 163 submissions written in English and published in the UK and Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026.
Marlon James, who won in 2015 with A Brief History of Seven Killings, returns with The Disappearers, set in Kingston, Jamaica in the late 1980s. Douglas Stuart, who won in 2020 with Shuggie Bain, is shortlisted for John of John, set on the Isle of Harris in the 1990s. Only four authors have ever won the Booker twice.
These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic.Mary Beard, chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judges
The chair of judges, Mary Beard, said: “These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic, from the powerfully shocking to the intriguingly understated.” The panel also included Raymond Antrobus, Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu and Patricia Lockwood.
At one end of the career scale, M. John Harrison, 81, would become the prize’s oldest-ever winner should The End of Everything, his dystopian novel set on a post-apocalyptic Kent coast, take the prize. At the other, Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King, a debut set between an unnamed medieval court and the present day, is the list’s single first novel; it won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize in July.
The list also reaches across the Atlantic. Elizabeth Strout, the Pulitzer-winning American author shortlisted previously for Oh William!, is nominated for The Things We Never Say, set in coastal Massachusetts in the run-up to the 2024 US election.
Two independent publishers have a book each on the shortlist, Serpent’s Tail with The End of Everything and Granta with May We Feed the King, while the big houses account for the other four titles across their imprints.
None to date. The Journal corrects errors promptly and transparently. Read our corrections policy.
