Booker Prize Long List 2026: review of all books

 

Welcome!
 
Recently, at the end of July, the longlist of nominations for the 2026 Booker Prize was announced. Although I am not always satisfied with the final selection of books, which increasingly focus on popularity rather than content from year to year, the list always shines with more than one wonderful title that eventually receives an English edition as well. I am curious to see what the jury has chosen for this year's longlist. Enjoy reading!
 
The novel The Shadow of the Object, which made it to the prestigious 2026 Booker Prize longlist, is an exceptional, mesmerizing, and deeply intimate work by acclaimed writer Chloe Aridjis. Its plot revolves between Mexico and London, exploring motifs of desire, metamorphosis, and mortality. At the center of the narrative is Flora, whose life in her native Mexico is turned upside down after the venom of the family dog infiltrates her hand, leading to a long hospital stay. There, she meets Wilhelmina, an older German collector who gathers pre-cinematic toys and optical devices. Their dreamlike conversations and a staged magic lantern show draw Flora into a mysterious world, later forcing her in London to contact Wilhelmina's son Max and redefine the boundaries of her own reality and imagination. World-renowned authors and critics call the author one of the boldest and most innovative voices in the contemporary English-speaking world, and the book itself—thanks to the impressionistic, peculiar beauty of its prose and its existential depth—has met with an enormous literary echo.
 
Goodreads rating: 3.84 (146 votes)
 
Praised by critics as a mesmerizing, deeply moving, and unusually original work—the novel Switzy by internationally acclaimed American writer Emma Cline—was also included on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist. At the center of the book is David, a retired business director suffering from a degenerative neurological disease, who sets off on a final journey across Europe in a private plane accompanied by his assistant, wishing to say goodbye to relatives and friends before submitting to medically assisted euthanasia in a clinic in Zurich. As he journeys through luxury hotels, airports, and encounters with his adult daughter and an old acquaintance, the author's artfully guided narrative reveals a fading human consciousness in which the connection to the present slowly breaks, while past memories and illusions flood the final months of life. The novel sharply and unsentimentally questions the price of the elite world, the vanity of luxury, and the fundamental question of what truly remains at the end of a human life after achieving everything yet losing one's memory.
 
Goodreads rating: 4.14 (162 votes)
 
The innovative and philosophically bold novel Helen of Nowhere by American writer Makenna Goodman, also included on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, is a compelling and unexpected parable about a fresh start in life, the attraction of nature, and the price one must pay for desired happiness. At the center of the plot is a discredited professor who, guided by a provincial real estate agent, tours an idyllic, isolated house and listens to stories about its former resident—the mysterious Helena. Through these strange, mesmerizing tales and encounters that blur the line between reality and dream, the man begins to believe he has found a chance to escape his ruined life and achieve a simpler existence rooted in the earth. However, as evening falls, it turns out that the true price of this choice is much higher, stranger, and requires a complete personal transformation. Critics compare this slim yet powerful book to a modern fairy tale that masterfully examines the relationship between man and nature and the desperate search for meaning in our fractured world.
 
Goodreads rating: 3.38 (966 votes)
 
The capricious, ironic, and unsettling post-apocalyptic novel The End of Everything by acclaimed British writer M. John Harrison, which also landed on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, explores the limits of human understanding in a changing world. At the center of the book is Phillip Tennent, living on the coast of Kent, who makes a living by pulling mysterious artefacts from the waves of the English Channel following an unexpected crisis that completely altered the world order, causing the collapse of governments and the influx of unknown marine creatures. When Phillip pulls an unusual, constantly changing artifact-creature from the water, he must transport it inland before the object destroys everything he has believed in until then. Critics and the Booker Prize jury describe this work as a radiant, misty, and deeply present-rooted novel in which surrealism masterfully intertwines with subtle satire and a melancholic look at our fragility.
 
Goodreads rating: 4.25 (13,638 votes)
 
The powerful and monumental novel The Disappearers by Jamaican-born Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James, which made it to the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, is an ambitious, shocking, and deeply human work marking the author's return to Jamaica. The plot of the book begins in 1988 in Kingston, where eight strange men gather for a rehearsal ahead of an openly homosexual theatrical performance, facing immense dangers in a society that rejects their identity. Everything turns upside down when a brutal mob bursts into the rehearsal: one of the men is killed, and all the others are left injured, setting off a twenty-year sequence of trauma, revenge, guilt, and the consequences of survival. The Booker Prize jury and critics call this book a bold and uncompromising exposure of Jamaican homophobia and queer culture, in which a pulsing criminal intrigue masterfully weaves together with painful humor and a deep, nuanced look at the lives of the marginalized.
I would very gladly read this title in Polish!
 
Goodreads rating: 4.33 (49 votes)
 
The brilliant, absurdist, and deeply human novel Black Bag by British poet and writer Luke Kennard, also honored with a place on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, is a unique, subversive campus novel that explores motifs of the contemporary crisis of masculinity, art, and interpersonal relationships. At the center of the plot is a financially struggling, unemployed 37-year-old actor who accepts a strange job offer from university professor Dr. Blend: during every autumn semester lecture, he must sit at the very back of the lecture hall, completely hidden inside a large leather (black) sack, recreating a 1967 psychological experiment. As he increasingly settles into this role and finds a strange comfort in anonymity, those around him begin to exploit the situation in their own way—the posthumanism professor wonders if one can fall in love with a human hidden in a sack, and the actor's roommate plans how to commercialize this peculiar phenomenon. The Booker Prize jury and critics praised this book for its sharp satire, biting humor, and accurate insights into the absurdity of modern life, internet templates, and the struggle to find love and meaning in an unstable world.
This book personally intrigues me very much. I would like to read it in Polish!
 
Goodreads rating: 3.64 (721 votes)
 
The debut novel The Renovation by American writer Kenan Orhan, also included on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, is a shocking, surreal, and deeply touching work about emigration, memory loss, and the legacy of political oppression. At the center of the narrative is Dilaray, a Turkish émigré living in Salerno, Italy, whose father suffers from dementia, while she hires workers to prepare her apartment for his arrival. However, after the work is completed, a strange and absurd event occurs: instead of a new bathroom, the workers install a real Turkish prison cell that mysteriously connects to Istanbul. While Dilaray tries to cope with a crumbling marriage, financial problems, and her father's fading memories, this mysterious space becomes not only a shocking, kafkaesque nightmare but also a melancholic bridge back to a lost homeland, forcing a rethinking of the concepts of freedom, belonging, and home. The Booker Prize jury and critics praised this book for its masterful synthesis of tragicomedy and political allegory, biting humor, and unusually tender prose.
This book also caught my eye, as the motif of memory in literature has always interested me!
 
Goodreads rating: 3.58 (551 votes)
 
The debut novel May We Feed the King by British poet and novelist Rebecca Perry, which made the 2026 Booker Prize longlist and won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, is a poetic, intriguing, and sensual work exploring the nature of history, memory, and storytelling. The plot of the book weaves two timelines: that of a contemporary museum curator who spends her days preparing and decorating the interiors of historical buildings and banquet tables for the public, and the realities of a medieval court. When the curator dives into the archive, her attention is drawn to an almost forgotten king—a ruler who unexpectedly and against his will inherited the throne after the early death of his brothers, facing immense resistance from the court and doubts about his own suitability. The author masterfully combines sensual poetry, a dreamlike atmosphere, and questions about the difference between fiction and historical facts, creating an original and critically praised story about the boundary between the past and the present.
 
Goodreads rating: 3.90 (1,005 votes)
 
British prose writer Gwendoline Riley has earned widespread recognition for her exceptional psychological insight, minimalist style, and impeccable ear for dialogue, which accurately reveals the tensions of modern relationships and human loneliness. These qualities are perfectly reflected in her novel The Palm House, which tells the story of the long-standing friendship between two friends—Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam—unfolding against the complex and shifting background of London. At the center of the work is fifty-year-old Putnam, who plunges into a deep crisis and depression following his father's death and threatening changes, including the invasion of a new, unpleasant editor at the magazine to which he dedicated his life; meanwhile, Laura struggles with her own difficulties, including difficult and entangled relationships with her mother. In this novel, G. Riley masterfully and with her signature tart humor explores how two emotionally vulnerable people try to help each other, salvage their shared bond, and cope with the catastrophe of their personal lives.
 
Goodreads rating: 3.42 (1,792 votes)
 
Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, in her 2026 novel The Things We Never Say, looks with sensitivity and deep empathy at human loneliness and unspoken secrets in family life. At the center of the work is Artie Dam, a high school history teacher living on the coast of Massachusetts, whose seemingly calm and exemplary life with his wife begins to tear at the seams during June and autumn days. Although Artie strives to be a supportive teacher and neighbor, he is torn from within by a profound sense of isolation, anxiety about the surrounding world, and decades-long family tragedies that give him no peace. An unexpected incident in the water and a later uncovered hidden or unspoken secret force him to rethink his relationships with loved ones and come to terms with the mysteries of existence. This book, included on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, has earned critical praise for its shocking portrayal of shame, marital bonds, and the fragility of everyday life.
 
Goodreads rating: 4.15 (54,749 votes)
 
Scottish-American writer and Booker Prize winner Douglas Stuart transports readers in his 2026 novel John of John to the windy and isolated Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. At the center of the plot is 22-year-old John-Callum (Callum), who, having finished his art studies in Edinburgh, returns penniless to his native village. There, he must navigate between the two extreme poles of his world: his strictly religious father—a sheep farmer, weaver, and pillar of the local Presbyterian community—and his witty and sharp-tongued grandmother Ela. This deeply moving and texturally rich story explores complex father-son relationships, the shame hidden within the rules of a closed community, and the concept of masculinity. Both young Callum and the father, who maintains a tough facade, must secretly fight against their true desires and their search for personal identity in a world where any deviation from tradition is condemned.
I would love to read it! Shuggie Bain was a wonderful book by this author!
 
Goodreads rating: 4.27 (21,986 votes)
 
Young Irish writer Djamel White, in his debut novel All Them Dogs, included on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, presents a gritty, unsentimental, and powerful portrait of West Dublin's underworld. At the center of the work is Tony Ward, who returns to his hometown after five years spent abroad and tries to re-integrate into the local gang network, working alongside the unpredictable and dangerous crime boss enforcer Darren "Flute" Walsho. As the shadows of a costly presence grow denser, a complex relationship built on mutual attraction forms between the two men. Critics praised this adrenaline-fueled novel for its virtuosic use of street slang, elements of humor, and an unexpected textual human warmth and sensitivity hiding beneath a brutal shell and hyper-masculinity.
 
Goodreads rating: 3.70 (940 votes)
 
The sensitive and experimental novel The Vivisectors by English writer Missouri Williams, included on the 2026 Booker Prize longlist, offers a completely traditional-defying and dark look at contemporary university life. The action takes place in a decaying academic town slowly being reclaimed by vegetation, where power is shared between weakened academics and a threatening group of rebellious gardeners. At the center of the story is Agatha, a cynical and apatheic woman who spends her days caring for her disabled mother and serving a fraudulent professor. When a major university scandal erupts over alleged discrimination between ambitious student Adam and a young lecturer, Agatha is forced by her boss's command to grow closer to Adam and play a kind of spy. Soon, however, a strange bond filled with tension and existential anxiety is born between them, and M. Williams' prose earns critical praise for icy suspense, gothic angularity, and a bold rejection of what we call the ordinary clichés of the campus novel (dark academia).
 
Goodreads rating: 3.41 (307 votes)