Anticipating The International Booker Prize 2026

We’re about to embark on an epic journey across the world’s fiction, traveling paths forged by the magic of translation. I can’t wait to share the treasures we discover. ~Natasha Brown, Chair of the International Booker Prize 2026 judges

The International Booker Prize will announce the long list of thirteen books on Tuesday, February 24. Once again, the Shadow Jury awaits this announcement with great anticipation. What will this year bring us from the world of translated literature? Which author, and which translator, will equally share the £50,000 prize?

Our Shadow Jury for 2026 is comprised of the following bibliophiles:

• Stu, who is mostly found on Bluesky here and on Instagram here.
• Vivek is on Instagram here.
• David is writing the blog David’s Book World, and can be found on Bluesky here.
• Frances is found on Bluesky here and on Instagram here.
• Paul is on Goodreads here.
• Jeremy is on Bluesky here and on Substack here.
• Marina is writing the blog Finding Time To Write, and can be found on Bluesky here.
• and me, here at Dolce Bellezza and (rarely) on Instagram here.

Together we will read and review the books which are on the long list, eagerly discussing amongst ourselves which we deem most worthy of the prize. Sometimes, we agree with judges. More often, I dissent. But agreeing with them or not, in no way deters from the pleasure of reading books in translation and going through the door they open to broader understanding of the world in which we live. Although I am a reader, and not a translator, I feel much as one of the judges describes below:

To translate is to undertake a powerful act of generosity, creativity and connection to ferry literature across from one language to another, to forge kinship across distance. ~Nilanjana S. Roy, International Booker Prize 2026 judge

I cannot predict with any amount of certainty what will be revealed as a contender for the prize on February 24. However, I am hopeful that a few of my favorite books in translation, which have been published from May 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026, will be selected. Specifically, I am hopeful to see these books (click on the cover to go to the publisher):

As you can see, my knowledge base is largely Japanese, but I have read all of these books and consider them to be exceptional. We shall see what the judges have considered exceptional in the weeks to come…

Sisters in Yellow by Mieko Kawakami (“It’s only because I have you guys that I can do any of this.”)

The power of Sisters In Yellow stunned me.

I could not read it quickly, for the pages dwelt inside me with increasing heaviness. As Hana told her story, my compassion for her grew such that I could hardly contain it.

Where do you go when you have no one to turn to? Hana seemed to begin with a color. Yellow, to be specific.

Yellow was how all this started. I met Kumiko, who had yellow in her name, and she was the first one who’s taught me about yellow bringing fortune, and that was how I was able to leave Higashimurayama and find my own place and my own life.

Hana’s mother has no capacity for parenting. She works at a bar, connecting with the men she finds there for brief interludes, leaving Hana on her own. Hana must be the responsible one in the family. So, it is easy for her to leave with Kimiko, a friend of her mother’s, in search of a better home.

Kimiko and Hana set up a bar, which Hana names Lemon, and soon they have more money than Hana has ever known. The new adults in her life, Kimiko and her friends, show her ways to survive that make her feel she is thriving. Until the mounting dangers, and fear, show her that her life is really crumbling. 

The despair that Hana feels is heart wrenching. What does she have? No career, no family ID, no education.

How do people go on living? People I passed on the street, people reading newspapers in the cafes or drinking booze in the izakaya, eating ramen, going out with friends to make memories, people coming from somewhere, going elsewhere, laughing, raging, crying, people who live for today and would wake up and do the same tomorrow. How did they do it? I knew they had honest jobs, earned honest money. But embarrassed I didn’t understand was how they’d first obtained the qualifications to live within that honesty. How had they made it to that side? I wanted someone to tell me. My nights were sleepless, filled with worry, tossing and turning, and my thoughts grew distorted, so much so that I almost called my mother.

But, Hana’s mother can’t help her. And when Hana’s friends suggest that Kimiko and the other adults in their circle, have taken advantage of her, Hana cannot help but feel betrayed.

I’d always believed Kimiko had saved me. And the more I got to know her, the more I became convinced that she couldn’t live without me either, that there was no other way. That was why I’d been so desperate. But, I was wrong…

This is the crux of the novel, I believe. Did Kimiko take advantage of Hana? Or, as one of my principals said when I expressed disgust over a parent’s behavior, was she simply doing the best that she could? What ultimately matters is how Hana faces the reality of her life. She cannot answer for how she has been treated; she can only answer for how she will, in turn, treat others. 

As we all, one day, will do.