A monumental day in the literary calendar, the winner of one of the most prestigious literary awards, the Booker Prize, is due to be announced on 9 November.
The six shortlisted books were selected by the judging panel headed by classicist Mary Beard, and includes poet Raymond Antrobus, Pulp’s frontman Jarvis Cocker, editor Rebecca Liu, and novelist Patricia Lockwood.
The shortlisted books all reflect on identity – from the repressed sexuality of a father and son in a deeply rigid Free Presbyterian community in John of John, to the witty exploration into the crisis of masculinity and life as a modern creative in Black Bag . Asking what it means to be human in a fast-changing world, the novels span historical fiction with May We Feed the King, contemporary realism with The Disappearers and near-future landscapes with The End of Everything.
“These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic, from the powerfully shocking to the intriguingly understated,” said Mary Beard, chair of the Booker Prize 2026 judges.
She continues: “This is writing at its best. There’s plenty to enjoy, some blissful escapism and prose to die for (‘I just wish I could have written that’ kept going through my mind). But there is also plenty here to change the way we see the world, to surprise us and to challenge our certainties”
Before the winner is announced, the IndyBest team and I pored over the six shortlisted books – here’s which book to read if you like romance, history, sci-fi and more.
Read more: 16 best new books to read this autumn
‘May We Feed the King’ by Rebecca Perry, published by Granta
Best for: fans of historical fiction
The first novel from the award-winning author of two poetry collections, Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King’ is a fresh take on historical fiction and will delight those fascinated by the inner workings of medieval courts. The story begins with a curator who has been commissioned to create the displays of a King and the people in the historic house.
A devoted curator, we follow them as they study rooms, records and consult the archivist to create displays with immaculate attention to detail – all set against the overall lack of context Perry withholds, letting our imagination scrabble to build a picture. The curator discovers the story of the King who does not want to rule. Reluctant to take up his God-given ultimate power, whisperings that he is not fit for rule quickly travel around the court, revealing a larger story on desire, agency, and what makes a life fulfilling.
As someone who read history, I was enraptured by the level of detail the curator took to the foods selected for displays, as well as the overall conversation the book stirred about historiography, memory and our inherent perspective we bring when studying the past. If you’re into historical fiction or want a book to change your mind on the genre, I’d recommend this quietly powerful book.
Buy now £9.99, Amazon.co.uk
‘The End of Everything’ by M. John Harrison, published by Profile Books
Best for: fans of thought-provoking sci-fi
Reviewed by Hollie Brown
At 81-years-old, M. John Harrison could become the oldest-ever Booker Prize winner with The End of Everything, a surreal vision of Britain after an unexplained catastrophe known simply as the “crisis”. The nature and cause of the crisis remain deliberately obscure and open to interpretation.
The novel follows Phillip Tennent, a beachcomber on the Kent coast who collects artefacts washed ashore. The world has been transformed by the mysterious iGhetti, strange alien entities that have become part of everyday life. With the government barely functioning, Europe seemingly missing and the seas brimming with unfamiliar life, people gradually learn to accommodate the inexplicable, treating even the most bizarre occurrences as part of the new normal. When Phillip discovers a mysterious artefact, he is drawn into a world where nothing is quite as it seems. Harrison avoids a conventional apocalypse narrative in favour of something stranger and more elusive, blending social satire with unsettling science fiction.
At times, the fragmented storytelling feels like being caught in a vivid, disorientating dream, with events resisting straightforward explanation. This is deliberate, but readers who prefer a clear plot and tidy answers may find it frustrating. Surreal, unsettling and thought-provoking, The End of Everything is an ambitious read for those willing to embrace the unknown, even when the story refuses to make complete sense.
Buy now £15.76, Amazon.co.uk
‘Black Bag’ by Luke Kennard, published by John Murray
Best for: fans of satire
Reviewed by Sabrina Sahota
Black Bag is a campus novel, but not as you know it. Kennard draws you into the world of a struggling actor who is trying to get their big break, while navigating London life and all the familiar challenges of getting by in the city as a creative. An opportunity presents itself in the form of psychology professor Dr Blend, who recruits the actor for a peculiar academic experiment. They are tasked with sitting at the back of the room in all of the professor’s autumn lectures zipped into an oversized black bag, so he can observe how his students will react.
What follows are moments of wry, satirical and often surreal scenarios where our narrator leads life as Black Bag, offering comically sharp, witty observations into the creation of art, masculinity, connection and all the challenges of modern day life. There are moments where it loses itself and feels a little off-kilter, but I found it was best enjoyed on audiobook, which is narrated by Kennard who really brings the character of Black Bag to life.
Buy now £10.99, Amazon.co.uk
‘The Disappearers’ by Marlon James, published by Hamish Hamilton
Best for: readers of queer fiction
Reviewed by Samuel Mathewson
Marlon James paints a dangerous picture of life in 1980s Jamaica for a cast of eight gay men who come together to put on a play. The play is set in a prison and features explicit homosexual content, which is an intentional provocation to reclaim agency, given the backdrop of extreme violence that’s an ever-present concern for the men. Stories of violence against gay people, heard through friends of friends, haunt the men whose lives are as precarious as the characters in the play. One of the men is selling his body after being thrown out of his home, and the burgeoning AIDS crisis amps up the peril.
Divided into five parts, each with a distinct narrative voice, the novel follows the eight men and a wider cast of characters as the stakes escalate. The relentless trauma feels reminiscent of A Little Life. The dialogue at first felt unrealistic and stilted, but once I got used to it, I enjoyed the slightly exaggerated and idiosyncratic voices with Jamaican vernacular woven through. The story is propelled by violence and salacious sexual encounters, making this a rollicking ride that will chew you up and spit you out.
Buy now £15.09, Amazon.co.uk
'John of John' by Douglas Stuart, published by Picador
Best for: father-son relationships
Reviewed by Sabrina Sahota
Douglas Stuart, who rose to fame with titles including Young Mungo and Booker Prize winning Shuggie Bain, transports us away from the streets of Glasgow and out to the harsh Hebrides, to the isle of Harris for his latest novel, John of John.
This quiet but touching novel tells the story of Cal, also known as John-Calumn Macleod, who returns to his home on the Hebrides after struggling to establish a career in the arts. Cal returns to his family’s croft on the isle of Harris but faces resistance against his old life, keeping his sexuality a secret from his father John, a sheep farmer, weaver and like many on the island, a man with hardened Presbyterian values. It’s this father-son relationship that shines in John of John, depicted so thoughtfully and tenderly by Stuart, who gives readers a masterclass in writing about complex masculine relationships.
Over seven years, Stuart spent a total of around four months in the Outer Hebrides researching the rugged landscape, its people and its heritage textile industry. This is so apparent when reading his vivid descriptions, which completely immerse you in the island and Cal’s world.
Buy now £9.95, Amazon.co.uk
'The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout, published by Penguin
Best for: a quietly powerful novel
Reviewed by Daisy Lester
Few contemporary authors command a following quite as Elizabeth Strout, who has crafted beloved characters such as Olive Kitteridge and Lucy Barton. Her latest novel is a standalone story, introducing a new character that I’m sure will be met with equal adoration, and the Booker Prize judges agreed. The Things We Never Say centres around Artie Dam, a high school history teacher in Maine – Strout’s favourite novel location – who is grappling with middle-age feelings of loneliness, isolation and despair. To his wife, colleagues and students, he appears full of life, spending his Saturday’s out sailing on his boat, while enjoying active socialising and a stable career. Beneath, he is beset by grief about the direction of his later life.
One day, an unexpected encounter leads to the unraveling of a decade-long secret, which forces Artie to revaluate everything he’s ever known. As with most of Strout’s work, it’s a quietly powerful novel: the kind that makes you reassess your own life in the process. Combining the personal (a touching father and son relationship) with the political (Trump’s America is hard to ignore), it’s one of her most moving works to date.
Buy now £9.49, Amazon.co.uk
For more, here’s what to know about A Court of Thorns and Roses before reading book six
