It’s finally here! The booker dozen! Long form ficion released between October 2025 and September 2026. The goal is the find the novels that are the future classics. The ones that will age well and get better with re-reading. One of these will be this years booker winner – here they are, all 13 candidates:
Hospitalized in Mexico after a dog bite, Flora forms a dream-like bond with an elderly patient who entrusts her with a mission. Returnign to London she befriends the woman’s son as her imagination begins to blur the lines of reality.
Flying over Greenland on a private jet, retired executive David struggles to recognize his own handwriting as his mind begins to unravel.
This book is not yet released, it releases september 10, 2026.
A realtor shows a disgraced professor around a countryside house where the previous owners presence lingers. Drawn to stories of her lifestyle, he sees a change to buy into a simple life close to nature. However, as night falls, he learns the true asking price is much higher and stranger than expected.
Philip Tennent makes his living collecting washed-up artifacts along the Channel years after an obscure crisis distruped society and filled the seas with strange new creatures. When he fishes out a volatile, ever-changing object, he is forced to journey inland before it destroys everything he knows.
In 1988 Kingston, Jamaica, eight gay strangers rehearsing a play are subjected to a savage mob atttack that leaves one dead.
This book is not released yet – it will be released september 17, 2026.
A penniless actor takes a job sitting in auniversity lecture hall zipped inside an oversized black bag for a psychologival experiment. The bizarre role triggers unexpected consequences when a professor falls for the hidden figure, while the actor’s flatmate plots to monetize the situation.
As her father’s dementia worsens, exiled Dilara discovers her apartment builders mistakenly installed a Turkish prison cell instead of a bathroom. Despite her inital outrage, she becomes deeply drawn to the room’s impossible sights and scents of Istanbul.
A museum curator becomes so transfized by the reign of an almost forgotten, reluctant medieval King that her reality begins to blur. Meanwhile in the past, whispers of the unfit ruler’s weakness threaten to destabilize the throne as cour factions plot his replacement.
Longtime friends Laura Miller and Edmund Putnam find comfort in long evenings discussing life and their share passions. But when Putnam sinks into despondency following his fathers death and a toxic workplace takeover, their bond is tested.
History teacher Arti Dam appears to live a perfect life, but inwardly he battles isolation and wonders how we can know so little about those closest to us. When a shocking secret upends his world, he is forced to reconsider his dearest relationships.
Broke after art school, John-Calum Macleoud returs to his childhood croft on the Isle of Harris. Caught between his deeply religious father and his grandmother, Cal searches for connection on the lonely hillsides. As the seasons pass, growing generational and religious tensions threaten to fracture the fragile island community.
Returning to West Dublin after five years, Tony Ward partners with Flute Walsh a dangerous gang enforcer. While Flute’s underworld protection keeps Tony safe from his past, an unexpected mutual attraction complicates their deadly partnership.
In a crumbling university city divided between academics and rogue gardeners, assistant Agathe protects her fraudulent boss’s career. Ordered to spy on a contrarian student during abitter campus scandal, she becomes a double agent. Soon, Agathe is caught in the city’s chaotic power struggle and drawn to her target.

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I am planning on reading the entire longlist – and if you want to join the challenge I have one going on the storygraph. I will be posting reviews along the way, and rank them as we go. I have previously read Elizabeth Strout’s “The things we never say”, but I think I will reread it during the challenge. Although I can say that I liked it a lot, I gave it 4 stars – deducted one for some EU politics I felt had no place in this book.
But the booker sets out to find books that are worth talking about, books that bears rereading, that can be future classics so I feel rereading can only be a benifit.
This list feels a lot more progressive and experiemental than previous years. I was very surprised to not see Ben Lerners Transcription on this because it felt like such a “booker book” but it seems this isn’t youre *typical* booker longlist. And, I love that.
I went out in seach of the books yesterday after the announcement and only found 4 books. Norway is a small country and Oslo is a small city after all. I did not expect to find them all. But they have been ordered, but the 4 I found was The things we never say, John of John, Helen of Nowhere and The end of everything.
So I am starting with John of John, since it is the second to longest book with 400 pages. And it’s the one I’m looking the least forward to reading. (I wasn’t a big fan of Shuggie Bain or Young Mungo.) I’ll climb this hill first and hopefully the rest will be smooth sailing.
Any of these you’re most looking forward to? Are you planning on reading the whole list?
