Daniel Kehlmann, Marie NDiaye and Yáng Shuāng-zǐ are among the six authors shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker prize, as the award marks its 10th year..
The annual prize celebrates the best works of fiction translated into English, and awards £50,000 to a couple of translators, to be split equally.
Writers Rene Karabash, Shida Bazyar and Ana Paula Maia are also shortlisted for the award. The winning book will be announced on May 19.
German writer Daniel Kehlmann gets his second shortlist for The Director, translated by Ross Benjamin, a novel inspired by the life of filmmaker GW Pabst and his involvement with Nazi Germany. “The director has all the darkness, great ambiguity and uncertainty of a modern Grimms’ tale,” wrote Nina Allan in a Guardian review. It is Kehlmann’s best work.
The French writer Marie NDiaye, meanwhile, reaches the first list with The Witch, translated by Jordan Stump, a dark comic book published in French in 1996. NDiaye was previously longlisted for the prize in 2016, and she was listed in the earlier version of the prize in 2013, when it recognized all their work.
A Taiwanese writer named Yang Shuāng-zǐ listed for Taiwan Travelogue, translated by Lin King, which follows a Japanese woman’s journey in 1930s Taiwan under colonial rule. The novel won Taiwan’s highest literary honor, the Golden Tripod award, when it was originally published in Mandarin Chinese in 2020.
The six shortlisted books “span from the last century, these books are consistent with history”, according to the chair of the judges and author Natasha Brown. “In re-reading each book, we’ve found hope, insight and a fiery personality – along with unforgettable characters that I’m sure readers will return to again and again.”
Two shortlisted publications: The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by German author Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin, which traces the journey of an Iranian family through revolution and exile, and She Who Remains by Bulgarian author Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel, a coming-of-age story set in Albanian society.
Also on the list is On Earth As It Is Beneath by Brazilian author Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan, a book set in a brutal slave colony turned penal colony.
Five out of six authors are women, as are four out of six translators, and the books were originally written in five different languages, with authors and translators together representing eight nationalities.
A panel of judges selected the shortlist from a longlist of 13 titles, which they themselves selected from 128. Each shortlisted title receives £5,000. The remaining long list is made up of We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated by Robin Myers; The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated by David McKay; The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated by Charlotte Mandell; Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson; The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated by Antonella Lettieri; Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated by Farridoun Farrokh; and The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated by Martin Aitken.
Joining Brown on this year’s judging panel are mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, translator Sophie Hughes, and writers Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S Roy.
Last year, the award went to Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.
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