1.German-Iranian novelist Shida Bazyar in her novel The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran (Scribe), translated by Ruth Martin, reminds that Iranians are the victims of history many times over. The story comes from 4 members of an Iranian family over 30 years. In 1979, young Behzad greets the Islamic revolution that deposes the Shah, but his hopes for a communist utopia are thwarted. Instead he’s surrounded by people who have been waiting for the chance to become bullies for life. He and his wife Nahid flee to Germany: she takes the story in 1989 & their daughter takes it in 1999.
Laleh visits Iran, amazed by the cultural differences from Germany. In 2009, Laleh’s brother Mo hears about protests across the Middle East, and his excitement: As soon as Ahmadinejad is gone, it’ll kick off in Egypt too and eventually all the dictators will be out; this is even more heart breaking given Iran today. A timely novel doesn’t always deliver but this one’s empathy could make it worthy.
2.The Witch (Vintage) translated by Jordan Stump is a deep cut from French novelist Marie NDiaye’s back catalogue in 1996. When my daughters turned 12 I initiated them into the mysterious powers, it opens irresistibly. Narrator Lucie has divination powers and can see people’s futures, and when she does, she cries tears of blood. She dislikes being a witch but still teaches her daughters, as her mum taught her.
Set against this weirdness is a complex comedy of domestic discontent: Lucie’s timeshare-salesman husband runs off with the family money; then she tries to reunite her separated parents. She begins to lose everyone, and her powers fail to help her; thus the book raises knotty questions about making use of our capabilities. This accessible but surprising novel is perfect for newcomers to NDiaye, but the acceleration of events as the story proceeds and the arbitrary ending is frustrating. It probably won’t win.
Shortlisted books in 2026
The Booker Prizes
3.In Brazilian Ana Paula Maia’s previous novel Of Cattle and Men, cows were slaughtered. Now in On Earth As It Is Beneath, translated by Padma Viswanathan, it’s the men’s turn. A penal colony for the worst criminals started out with 42 inmates: now there are only 3 prisoners as the warden, eaten away by the system he defends, keeps releasing, hunting and shooting them. Authorities are coming to close the colony down!
Strangely this book has classic sitcom elements: people who can’t get along, stuck together & facing one mess after another. The tension between absurdity and grotesque violence gives the book an effervescent energy, and turns it into an existential thriller, all in 100 pages. Confusion reigns, power balances shift, and nobody on the outside cares what happens to the men anyway. This brilliant novel is loosely connected to Of Cattle and Men; an eccentric but very deserving contender.
4.The most formally inventive book on this year’s shortlist is Bulgarian Rene Karabash’s She Who Remains (Peirene), translated by Izidora Angel. It’s narrated by a 33-year-old woman in rural Albania living under archaic traditions. The narrative jumps about, mostly told in a prose poetry without full-stops. Details bubble up through repetition: her violent father’s disappointment (your father wanted a son, but out came you); how years ago Bekija jilted her fiance and revenge was exacted by his family. Bekija decided to become a sworn virgin, i.e a woman who lives as a man.
There is powerful eye-catching and stomach-turning activity, plus a love story hidden deeply in the backstory, but the book’s eccentric form keeps the reader at a distance, and many elements will only make sense retrospectively. This may have benefited the novel in the Booker stakes, where the judges gain the benefit of things a first-time reader might miss. Still, this spiky story looks unlikely for the prize.
5.Equally experimental but more approachable is Taiwan Travelogue by Taiwanese writer Yáng Shuāng-zi, translated by Lin King. What’s going on here? What’s going on is a novel disguised as a rediscovered travel memoir, complete with multiple afterwords and fictional footnotes alongside the translator’s real ones. It’s set in 1938, where a Japanese-Taiwanese novelist Aoyama goes on a food tour of Taiwan.
Aoyama has monster appetites, which may be concealing something else: she grows fond of her female guide Chi-chan, but struggles to articulate it. Whenever I start craving something, anything, my stomach burns with this insatiable greed. You’ve been the only one to appease this monster. But social strictures of gender & class (Chi-chan is a concubine’s daughter) make things harder. This is a simple love story that educates as it entertains, though it takes a long time to get to where it’s going. The complex structure seems more like window dressing than essential to its ideas. It will charm many, but may not be weighty enough to win.
6.Daniel Kehlmann’s The Director (Riverrun), translated by Ross Benjamin, is the most mainstream novel here: delightful and illuminating literary fiction that animates the wartime experiences of German film-maker GW Pabst, one of the great directors. A master, a legend. Trapped in Germany when the borders close, Pabst must decide whether he will work for the Nazis if that’s the only way he can get to keep making films. The book is full of big characters, real and invented, an obsequious anti-Semitic caretaker; a threatening government minister; Leni Riefenstahl with her skull-like smile. Pabst believes I’m not a political person, but he must learn that everything is political now. No one can ignore what is happening: not film-makers; not prisoner of war PG Wodehouse, who narrates one chapter; not even humble critics. Critics? We have no critics! Criticism is a Jewish genre that no one needs. It is not only its traditional form and direct plot that make The Director stand out on the shortlist, but its range, wit and chilling relevance. This would be a very popular winner and a fully deserving one. The winner will be announced on 19th May.
I have not read any of these books so cannot comment, but I recently enjoyed two books by Marjan Kamali about life in Tehran before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. They were both good reads.
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of novels in the old days, but once I started lecturing, all non academic reading ended. So I made an agreement with the world to at least read the Booker Prize winning book each year.
ReplyDeleteYou would recommend Marjan Kamali? I thank you.
Hello Hels, In my opinion, book prizes are a snare and a delusion. The winning books are typically either "artsy" or about some important issue. However, covering an important issue does not guarantee that a book is well-written, or even interesting. I have been bitten too many times by prize books, so I avoid them assiduously. When Kenzaburo Oe won the Nobel prize, I read one of his books, which was mainly a perpetual whine about losing WWII, although not necessarily badly written. .It was the Booker Prize which forced upon me what was without any doubt the worst book that I ever read, The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy. This book was so badly written that every single page was cringe worthy.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, readers are not dependent on prize books. I recently finished reading Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and will soon embark on his Edward the Second. I am making my way through Sylvia Plath's Letters--her writing style is delightful and poetic, even though we know what is coming. I have just finished a volume of Stephen Crane's gripping stories, including Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, and The Monster. Among these books many issues are brought up, but without that overwrought style and in-your-face good-for-you of the Prize books.
--Jim
Parnassus
Deletebook prizes are a not a delusion, but it is difficult to know how the decisions are made by the judges.
The Booker Prize is awarded annually to the best single work of sustained, long-form fiction published in English in the UK or Ireland. The best one wins £50,000 as well as the £2,500 awarded to each of the six shortlisted authors. If the measurement of "best work" was the number of books sold, the result may be accepted without argument.
But there are 5 panel judges each year consisting of authors, publishers, politicians, actors, artists and musicians. Each judge has to privately read 150-160 novels over a seven-month period, then the panel collectively debates the short list. How do we, in Australia or Brasil or South Africa, know whether we will like the final choice of best book?
As an aside, you will already know Sylvia Plath's works. But are you familiar with Rene Karabash's works?
These books sound like good reads and very insightful into the experiences of the people . I like historical fiction so thank you for sharing and giving such interesting reviews. I have not read any of them.
ReplyDeletegluten Free
DeleteI too read historical fiction all the time, and loved it. Only when I started studying history seriously did some of the historical novels sound a bit silly.
Your post got me wondering if any of these books will be ban or challenge.
ReplyDeletepeppylady
Deletenot at all. Firstly Booker Prize shortlisted authors should just about be beyond reproach, by the time they have become rich and famous around the world. Secondly is one of the short listed books looking as if it might be banned, at least in one country?
This was a fascinating read. I'm always up for a book post, and I wonder who will be the winner.
ReplyDeleteErika
DeleteExcellent. American publishers and independent presses handling the US editions of these books often run targeted newspaper articles and advertising campaigns. You will keep up to date regularly.
On Earth as it is Beneath sounds interesting. I'll keep an eye out for it. Is Iran the country that used to be Persia?
ReplyDeleteRiver,
Deleteinteresting but harsh. The synopsis:
On land where enslaved people were once tortured and murdered, the state built a penal colony in the wilderness, where inmates could be rehabilitated, but never escape. Now, decades later, and having only succeeded in trapping men, not changing them for the better, its operations are winding down.
Persia became Iran in 1935, yes.
Haven't read any of these books. I'm sure the winner will deserve it, Hels.
ReplyDeleteMargaret
DeleteI _will_ read the winner, but I am not sure from John Self's review whether we will all agree with the judging panel.
Do you finish reading a book whatever, or do you give it away if the first few chapters are not grabbing your attention?
The 2026 International Booker Prize was awarded to the novel Taiwan Travelogue, written by Taiwanese author Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated into English by Lin King. They are the first Taiwanese and Taiwanese-American winners, and this marks the first time a book originally written in Mandarin Chinese has won the award.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the Booker prize books are a good read but other times I don't agree with the prize winner.
ReplyDelete