The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist, dominated by women writers, is a portal to new worlds
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The 2026 International Booker Prize shortlist of six novels promises an expansive reading experience. From five languages and four continents, the shortlist is a reasonable starting point for discovering the many remarkable works of translated fiction that are published in the UK (and elsewhere) throughout the year.
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The books were originally published in these five languages: Bulgarian (She Who Remains), French (The Witch), German (The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran; The Director), Mandarin Chinese (Taiwan Travelogue) and Portuguese (On Earth As It Is Beneath).
Two debut novels (The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran; She Who Remains) feature alongside a novel that was published in its original language 30 years ago (The Witch). Author/translator pairings who have previously been nominated for the International Booker Prize are The Director’s Daniel Kehlmann and Ross Benjamin (shortlisted in 2020) and The Witch’s Marie NDiaye and Jordan Stump (longlisted in 2016). Translator Ruth Martin of The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran was longlisted in 2020. Five of the six authors and four of the six translators are women. The shortlist reminds us once again that when literary awards are opened up to languages from around the world, they automatically become diverse and inclusive.
Experiment with form
This year’s shortlist is most remarkable in its ingenuity in remembering some of history’s most decisive moments and how they are remembered by posterity. The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran spans the...