Tag: International Booker Prize 2026

The end of International Booker season approaches, and we on the shadow panel have selected a winner from our shortlist. We had four out of six books in common with the official shortlist, but we’ve gone with something else. The 2026 shadow winner is…

The Wax Child by Olga Ravn. tr. Martin Aitken (Viking)

This was my favourite book on the longlist in terms of the writing. It’s also the second year in a row that we’ve chosen a Danish novel as the shadow winner.

We are also giving an honourable mention to The Unremembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, tr. David McKay (Scribe UK), which was a very close runner-up. Interesting, this is the other book that we don’t share with the official shortlist.

That’s it for another year of shadowing. We are thinking of changing things up for next year, but that more on that another time…

I’m a little late reporting this, but we on the shadow panel now have our shortlist:

• Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Chinese by Lin King (And Other Stories)
• The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken (Viking)
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump (MacLehose Press)
• On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maria, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan (Charco Press)
• She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (Peirene Press)
• The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay (Scribe UK)

Two-thirds of our shortlist is the same as the official shortlist, but both lists still feel quite different to me overall. I wonder if we’ll choose the same winner as each other this year.

International Booker Prize season begins! The 2026 shortlist has been announced:

• Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Chinese by Lin King (And Other Stories)
• The Wax Child by Olga Ravn, translated from Danish by Martin Aitken (Viking)
• Women Without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh (Penguin International Writers)
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated from French by Jordan Stump (MacLehose Press)
• The Duke by Matteo Melchiorre, translated from Italian by Antonella Lettieri (Foundry Editions)
• On Earth As It Is Beneath by Ana Paula Maria, translated from Portuguese by Padma Viswanathan (Charco Press)
• The Director by Daniel Kehlmann, translated from German by Ross Benjamin (riverrun)
• She Who Remains by Rene Karabash, translated from Bulgarian by Izidora Angel (Peirene Press)
• Small Comfort by Ia Genberg, translated from Swedish by Kira Josefsson (Wildfire Books)
• The Deserters by Mathias Énard, translated from French by Charlotte Mandell (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
• The Remembered Soldier by Anjet Daanje, translated from Dutch by David McKay (Scribe UK)
• We Are Green and Trembling by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from Spanish by Robin Myers (Harvill)
• The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated from German by Ruth Martin (Scribe UK)

I don’t have much to say as I hadn’t heard of most of the books. But there are quite a few familiar authors there, and I’m looking forward to exploring the list. As always, I will be reading along with the Shadow Panel, and writing about the books here as and when I can. Off we go!