The shortlist has been announced, and features six books that reverberate with history, humanity, heartbreak and hope.
The shortlist of six books was chosen by the 2026 judging panel, chaired by award-winning author Natasha Brown. Brown is joined by writer, broadcaster and Oxford University Professor of Mathematics and for the Public Understanding of Science Marcus du Sautoy; International Booker Prize-shortlisted translator Sophie Hughes; writer, Lolwe editor and bookseller Troy Onyango; and award-winning novelist and columnist Nilanjana S. Roy.
The selection celebrates the best works of long-form fiction or collections of short stories translated into English and published in the UK and/or Ireland between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026. The longlist of 13 books was announced on 24 February 2026 and was selected by the panel from 128 books submitted by publishers.
Encapsulating a range of international experiences, with many drawing on real moments from history, the six books transport readers from Japan-ruled Taiwan in the 1930s to Nazi-controlled Europe during the Second World War, from magic and domesticity in suburban France in the 1990s to the turmoil and after-effects of the Iranian Revolution in 1979, from a brutal prison colony in a remote corner of Brazil to a strict patriarchal community in the Albanian Alps.
A diverse cast of richly realised characters including a suburban witch, a morally compromised filmmaker, a bloodthirsty prison warden, a sworn virgin with a new identity, a young novelist and her interpreter who share a passion for food, and a multigenerational family of Iranian emigrants.
The books are by a majority of women: five of the six authors and four of the six translators are female. The authors include an award-winning actor, a former youth worker and a writer of manga and video game scripts.
