An alien presence on the Kent coast. A mysterious black bag in a university lecture hall. A father and son keeping secrets on a Scottish island. The 2026 Booker Prize shortlist moves between wildly different worlds, but each book asks how people live with what they cannot easily explain. The winner will be announced on 9 November 2026. thebookerprizes.com

Here are the six books in contention:
– The End of Everything — M. John Harrison: On a Kent coast changed by catastrophe and strange visitors, a man and his aunt try to get through each day.

– The Disappearers — Marlon James: An attack on eight men rehearsing a play in Jamaica sends consequences through many lives.

– Black Bag — Luke Kennard: An unemployed actor accepts an extraordinary part in a professor’s experiment, setting up a sharp, funny look at identity and ambition.

– May We Feed the King — Rebecca Perry: A museum curator recreating a scene from the past finds herself drawn into the life of a reluctant young king.

– The Things We Never Say — Elizabeth Strout: A history teacher facing a personal secret must reconsider the life he thought he understood.

– John of John — Douglas Stuart: A young man returns to his religious island community, where both he and his father carry secrets
. thebookerprizes.com

For Sri Lankan readers, the Booker has a familiar place on its winners’ shelf. Michael Ondaatje, born in Sri Lanka, won in 1992 for The English Patient. Shehan Karunatilaka won in 2022 for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, becoming the second Sri Lankan author to receive the prize.

A shortlist is an invitation to read before the verdict. Which of these six would you pick up first — and which Sri Lankan Booker winner would you recommend to someone who has read neither?
From Lanka Books Online — for readers who love finding their next book.