Here are the 13 books that made the Booker Prize longlist

VPM | By Meghan Collins Sullivan

Published July 28, 2026 at 1:05 PM EDT

Here are the 13 books that made the Booker Prize longlist

This year’s Booker Prize longlist, announced Tuesday, includes 13 books covering a wide range of genres, from thriller to dystopian sci-fi to love story.

Two previous winners have made the prestigious list again – Douglas Stuart, who won for Shuggie Bain in 2020, and Marlon James, who took the prize in 2015 for A Brief History of Seven Killings. Elizabeth Strout is on the list as a third-time nominee for her latest work The Things We Never Say. The longlist also includes three debut authors.

Mary Beard, chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judges, said in a statement: “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.”

The Booker Prize is awarded each year to an author for a book published in English in the U.K. and/or Ireland between Oct. 1 and Sept. 30. The 2025 prize went to David Szalay for Flesh.

Six shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500, about $3,300. The winner of the prize, to be announced at a London ceremony on Nov. 9, will be awarded £50,000, a little more than $66,000.

Here is the full 2026 Booker Prize longlist:

The Shadow of the Object, Chloe Aridjis

Switzy, Emma Cline

Helen of Nowhere, Makenna Goodman

The End of Everything, M. John Harrison

The Disappearers, Marlon James

Black Bag, Luke Kennard

The Renovation, Kenan Orhan

May We Feed the King, Rebecca Perry

The Palm House, Gwendoline Riley

The Things We Never Say, Elizabeth Strout

John of John, Douglas Stuart

All Them Dogs, Djamel White

The Vivisectors, Missouri Williams

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Meghan Collins Sullivan

Meghan Collins Sullivan is a senior editor on the Culture Desk, overseeing multiplatform books coverage at NPR. She edits stories for NPR's radio programs and NPR.org, manages the Book of the Day podcast, and leads teams creating projects such as Books We Love.

Meghan has worked at NPR over the last 14 years in various capacities, including as the supervising editor for NPR.org – managing a team of online producers and reporters and editing news coverage. She was also lead editor for the 13.7: Cosmos and Culture blog, written by five scientists on topics related to the intersection of science and culture.

In 2011, Meghan was one of six U.S. journalists awarded a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Fellowship grant, with which she reported on challenges faced by abandoned children in Romania two decades after the fall of communism.

Prior to working with NPR, Meghan was assistant managing editor and deputy editor of the Washington Post's website, supervising the 24/7 breaking news desk. She also previously reported for CNN/Money and has written for other news outlets — including the Washington Post, National Geographic, Time, World Affairs and The Financial Times — from Mexico and Central Europe, as well as in the U.S. She graduated from College of the Holy Cross and earned a master's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

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