The wait is almost over. The winner of the International Booker Prize 2026 will be revealed this week.
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Six remarkable translated works are in the running for the grand prize of €57,000 and the honor of being awarded one of the most prestigious literary distinctions in the world.
Each author and translator selected on the final list also receives nearly €3,000.
The prize is awarded each year to a single book, translated into English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.
This year, five of the six authors selected are women, as are four of the six translators, and the works were originally written in five different languages; Authors and translators combined represent eight nationalities.
The president of the jury and novelist Natasha Brown believes that the six finalist works “capture moments from the entire past century; these books resonate with history.”
She adds: “As we reread each of them, we found hope, lucidity and burning humanity, as well as unforgettable characters to whom I am sure readers will return again and again. HAS”
Here’s what you need to know about each of the contenders.
Taiwan Travelogue – Yáng ShuÄ ng-zÇ , translated by Lin King
Set in 1930s Taiwan, under Japanese colonial rule, the novel follows Japanese writer Aoyama Chizuko and her Taiwanese interpreter on their journey around the island.
At the heart of the story is the intimate relationship between the two women, crossed by a queer desire, unacknowledged impulses and the tensions of colonial life, which play out over shared meals and sentences left hanging.
“Thanks to sensual writing around food, hilarious dialogues and metafictional pirouettes, this novel is impossible to put down. Taiwan Travelogue achieves an incredible breakthrough: both a delicious love story and an incisive postcolonial novel,” underline the members of the jury.
First published in Mandarin Chinese in 2020, it won the Golden Tripod, Taiwan’s most prestigious literary award, before being translated into English.
She Who Remains – Rene Karabash, translated by Izidora Angel
Set within a disappearing Albanian community, governed by the ancient Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini – a legal code which considers women as property –, this novel puts at the center Bekija, 33, confronted with a forced marriage.
Her way out consists of taking the name Matija and becoming the last “sworn virgin” of the community, making a social transition from feminine to masculine.
According to the jury, the novel “perfectly captures the shifting uncertainty of painful memories. Matija is a fascinating narrator, whose story completely swept us away.”
The Witch – Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump
Originally published in French in 1996, The Witch tells the story of Lucie, a “mediocre” witch stuck in a stifling small-town French marriage. Her daughters inherit her powers and immediately leave the nest – literally –, her husband leaves and the family she had built falls apart around her.
Funny, dreamlike, disturbing and captivating, The Witch highlights, according to the jury, the mysteries of femininity and motherhood.
“The language of this novel – and that of Jordan Stump’s translation – is exquisite: the sentences twist and metamorphose in unexpected ways,” say the jurors.
The Nights Are Quiet In Tehran – Shida Bazyar, traduit par Ruth Martin
Opening in the wake of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and spanning four decades, The Nights Are Quiet In Tehran follows a family through upheaval and exile.
Each of the four parts is narrated by a different member of the family: a revolutionary father, a mother passionate about literature, a daughter who discovers Iran for the first time, a son caught up in politics during the Green Movement of 2009, each section being located ten years apart.
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran is a moving novel about oppression, resistance and the absolute desire for freedom.
The Director – Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
When the Nazis took power in the 1930s, GW Pabst, one of the greatest filmmakers in history, filmed in France. To escape the horrors of the new Germany, he exiled himself to Hollywood. But under the bright Californian sun, the world-famous director suddenly seems like a complete stranger. Even Greta Garbo, whom he revealed, can do nothing for him.
The Director is a novel about the dangerous illusions of the big screen. It delves into the life of an artist and his pact with the devil, while exploring the complex relationships and shifting boundaries between art and power, beauty and barbarity.
On Earth As It Is Beneath – Ana Paula Maia, translated by Padma Viswanathan
On land where enslaved people were once tortured and murdered, the state has built a penal colony in the wilderness where inmates can be “rehabilitated,” but never escape.
But in the last days of the prison, a new horror is brought to light: every full moon night, the prisoners are released, the director arms himself with guns and the hunt begins.
The jury describes it as “a disturbing novel which plunges us into the heart of a group of isolated men whose bonds are unraveling in ways that are both difficult to understand and impossible to look away from”.
The winning entry will be announced from 11 p.m. (Central European Time) on Tuesday 19 May 2026, during a ceremony at Tate Modern, London.
