Mar 31, 2026
3 min read
The six finalists include Marie NDiaye and Yáng Shuang-zǐ, as well as Daniel Kielman's second nomination for the £50,000 prize.
Daniel Kehlmann, Marie NDiaye and Yáng Shuāng-zǐ are among six authors shortlisted for the 2026 Booker International Prize, as the prize marks its 10th anniversary.
The annual prize celebrates the best works of fiction translated into English and awards £50,000 to be split equally between an author and translator pair.
The list of awards also includes writers Rene Karabash, Shida Baziar and Ana Paula Maia.The winning book will be announced on May 19.
German writer Daniel Kehlmann received a second shortlist to direct, translated by Ross Benjamin, a novel inspired by GW Pabst's film life and his relationship with Nazi Germany."The director has all the darkness, shifting ambiguity and shimmering anxiety of a modern Grimms' tale," wrote Nina Allen in a Guardian review."This is Kehlmann's best work yet."
The French writer Marie NDiaye, reached the short list for the first time with The Witch, translated by Jordan Stump, a dark novel first published in French in 1996. NDiaye was nominated for the award before 2016, and was nominated in full in the previous edition of the prize in 2013, when their authorship was recognized.
Taiwanese writer Yáng Shuāng-zǐ was selected for Taiwan Travels , translated by Lin King, which follows a Japanese woman traveling through 1930s Taiwan under colonial rule.When the novel was first published in Chinese Mandarin in 2020, it won the top literary award in Taiwan, the Golden Tripod Award.
The six shortlisted books "span a period from the last century, books that deal with history," said jury chair and writer Natasha Brown."Re-reading each book, we found hope, insight and hot people - with unforgettable characters that I'm sure readers will come back to again and again."
Two debut roles on the shortlist: Nights are quiet in Tehran by German writer Shida Baziar, translated by Ruth Martin, which follows the journey of an Iranian family through revolution and exile, and She Who Remains, translated by Bulgarian writer Rene Karabash, a new story set in a patriarchal Albanian community by Izidora Angel.
Also on the list is Brazilian author Ana Paula Maya's On Earth as Beneath, a novel by Padma Viswanathan set on a brutal former slave plantation in a penal colony.
Five of the six authors are women, as are four of the six translators, and the book was originally written in five different languages, with the author and translator together representing eight nationalities.
The jury selected a shortlist from a longlist of 13 titles selected from 128 submissions.Each selected title will receive £5,000.Another long list includes We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara translated by Robin Myers;The Soldier Remembered by Angeette Dungey translated by David McKay;The Deserters by Matthias Enard, translated by Charlotte Mandel;Little Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson;The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated by Antonella Lettieri;Women Without Men by Sharnoosh Parsipour, translated by Faridoon Farouk;and The Wax Child by Olga Ravan, translated by Martin Aitken.
Joining Brown on this year's jury are mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, translator Sophie Hughes and writers Troy Onyango and Nilanjana S Roy.
Last year, the award went to Lampu Hati by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi.
