So we have it, The Booker Prize Longlist for another year. And another longlist without books by any Australian or New Zealand authors. Not surprising considering that to qualify books need to be published in the UK and very few antipodean novels find a publisher there. Is it because we don't write good? Or do they have preconceived ideas about what we can produce?
That said, there are wonderful novels on this list. Novels from Jamaica, Mexico, Turkey, England, Scotland, Ireland and the United States. The longest is over 600 pages, the shortest is a mere pamphlet at 140 pages. Good news for longlist completists, six books are under 250 pages long, which gives you a fighting chance to read them all before the winner is announced.
I have only heard of five of the thirteen longlisted books. And I am on the frontlines of book news. And I note that there isn't much local stock most of them. I was surprised to see Julian Barnes, Deborah Levy and Ali Smith didn't make the cut. They should be given all the prizes. But was very happy to see that three of my favourite reads this year made it, so that makes me happy.
Take a moment to browse the full list.
Longlisted
John of John by Douglas Stuart
This excavation of family, violence and shame is woven through with beautiful imagistic detail, and – unexpectedly – shades of hope. We loved the rich, textural detail of the story - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Our View: John of John is quiet and detailed, but it has this grinding, earthy energy that pushes it along. It is an absolutely beautiful book set in a very - I wouldn’t say ugly, but stark - environment. It’s very cold, with no trees, up there in Scotland. The emotional clarity you get is reminiscent of the great works of the 20th century. That is what you get in this book.
Longlisted
The Palm House by Gwendoline Riley
A note-perfect portrait of rarefied London intellectual spaces, and the people that make up that impersonal thing we think of as the Establishment. Minimalist, precise, and indelible - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Our View: I am a Gwendoline Riley addict, I can admit that. I read The Palm House twice. It is quiet, spare, sharp and fascinating. A very different book from her claustrophobic (and superb) novel, My Phantoms. A visiting British literary giant told me Riley needed to grow up and stop blaming her mum for everything. I hope they read The Palm House, it is better than anything the visiting literary giant has written recently. By a long way.
Longlisted
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
A devastating look at the dangerous cracks in family life and in the contemporary world at large. Strout’s prose is brilliantly understated and all the more powerful for that - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Our View: Quiet, devastating, uplifting and damning. The novel opens in America before Trump’s second election win and ends before the end of his second term. So we’re in very contemporary fiction territory. Almost as immediate as Ali Smith's work and just as brilliant but in a very different way. Artie Dam is a brand new character for Strout and the equal of her best, Olive Kitteridge, Bob Burgess and Lucy Barton. Artie is unhappy and wants to get off the world. The way Strout explores this heavy theme is something akin to magic. Her simple, direct and straight-forward prose produces a depth of emotion and intelligence that confounds critics and readers alike. Maybe the best book I'll read all year.
Longlisted
The Disappearers by Marlon James
A book that examines territory Caribbean literature has rarely dared to occupy, as what begins as a theatrical story becomes something closer to a reckoning. James is a singular literary talent - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams
A bracing antidote to the cosy campus and the dark academia novel, The Vivisectors is genuinely experimental, relentlessly and rollickingly told – and in places truly menacing - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
The Shadow of the Object by Chloe Aridjis
Mysterious and free-wheeling. We were charmed by the novel’s meditation on friendship and grief, and its suggestion that the most meaningful truths can be found in the shadows - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
Switzy by Emma Cline
Cline writes vividly about the trappings of the elite – the private jets, the heirloom watches – as well as their sad social cost in a story that feels immersive, elegiac, and very real - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
The Renovation by Kenan Orhan
A hilarious fantasy which had some of the judges laughing out loud. But it also poses questions about political activism, belonging, and the different forms imprisonment can take - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
Helen of Nowhere by Makenna Goodman
A spellbinding novel or a play with just four characters? Philosophically, politically, and spiritually adventurous, this slim, ambitious volume has the power to transform - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
The End of Everything by M. John Harrison
A book not just about everything but about now. Shimmering and oblique, it holds the reader to the surface of something very grave and deep - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
Black Bag by Luke Kennard
This of-the-moment satire considers anonymity and disgust, online rackets, and what it means to find love in our unstable times. We admired its sharply crafted sentences and humour - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
All Them Dogs by Djamel White
A ballsy, unsentimental portrait of West Dublin gangland, set well off the beaten track of the city’s usual literary landmarks. White has an ear for dialogue that is both racy and real - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
Longlisted
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry
A wonderfully enticing combination of themes, woven together with a delicacy of touch. You can’t read it without reflecting on the fragile boundary between the present and the past - The Booker Prize 2026 judges
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