Before the winner is announced on 9 November, here’s what to read

Spirits, sorrow, magic and mayhem sumptuously spill through the pages of these Mexican reads from the Booker Library

The 2026 Booker Prize shortlist is out, and it's stacked — six novels spanning four countries, decades of age gaps, and some of the weightiest themes in contemporary fiction. If Marlon James or Douglas Stuart wins in November, they'd join a rare club of only four authors ever to win the prize twice.

The 2026 Booker Prize judges, including Patricia Lockwood and Raymond Antrobus, have shared insights into the demanding process of reading 163 books within seven months to select the shortlist. The task, equivalent to approximately 23 books per month or three-quarters of a book daily, required significant discipline and strategic planning. Lockwood, a former Booker shortlistee, initially hesitated to join the panel but agreed when her husband offered to read alongside her. Antrobus, a poet and competitive swimmer, applied his training regimen to reading, setting daily page targets and optimizing his reading environment with a liquid diet to maintain focus. Both judges admitted to abandoning books that didn't meet their standards, emphasizing that the process was 'a treasure hunt, not a punishment in hell.' The panel, which included Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu, and Mary Beard, narrowed down the longlist of 13 to a shortlist of six novels, including works by Marlon James and Elizabeth Strout. The judges also discussed the challenges of balancing the workload with personal life, with Antrobus noting the difficulty of managing his role as a parent while reading. Despite the intensity, they highlighted the rewards of deep reading, with Lockwood noting that re-engaging with literature can be achieved within weeks through consistent effort. The winner of the 2026 Booker Prize will be announced on 9 November.

The 2026 Booker Prize shortlist is out, and it's stacked — six novels spanning four countries, decades of age gaps, and some of the weightiest themes in contemporary fiction. If Marlon James or Douglas Stuart wins in November, they'd join a rare club of only four authors ever to win the prize twice.

Ever felt like you didn’t want to be perceived?

Marlon James, the Booker Prize-winning novelist, and Nicholas Boggs, a biographer shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, discuss their relationship and creative partnership in a Guardian interview. The couple, who met through a dating app in 2018, have built a life together in Brooklyn, where their home is filled with art celebrating Black queer culture. James, known for his novels exploring Jamaica's violent history and homophobia, is shortlisted for the Booker Prize with his latest work, The Disappearers, which examines Aids-era gay life in Jamaica. Boggs, whose biography Baldwin: A Love Story explores James Baldwin's life and relationships, was shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. They discuss how their relationship has influenced their work, with Boggs discovering a pivotal detail about Baldwin's life that inspired James's novel. The couple emphasizes their shared commitment to recovering marginalized Black queer histories, with James noting the importance of giving 'those guys back some sort of agency and power.' They also discuss the challenges of writing in an era of increasing book bans, with James expressing concern about 'the forces stacked against me' but maintaining faith in readers. The pair are now collaborating on adapting Boggs's biography into a film, with Barack and Michelle Obama's production company involved. Despite their success, both remain humble, with James admitting he still feels like 'this underground, scrapping writer who got lucky.'

The Things We Never Say marks a new direction for Elizabeth Strout. Gone are the landscapes of rural Illinois and coastal Maine that featured so prominently in her previous 11 novels. Gone too are the characters of Lucy Barton, Olive Ketteridge and Bob Burgess whose connected lives earned Strout a Pullitzer Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction and a Booker Prize shortlisting.

YouTube video by Outlaw Bookseller

'On the Edge of Jerusalem’ (2024) by Yara Saeed, a thoroughly Egyptian novel that feels like it was written by a Palestinian. The novel is told from a bystander's perspective and has hybrid characters...

Puzzling and poetic novel asks: how do we know anything about history?

Lewis Gribben, Kathryn Hunter, Paterson Joseph, Himesh Patel, Maxine Peake and Savannah Steyn star in our new films showcasing the 2026 shortlist