The 2026 Women's Prize

84 Charing Cross Road meets A Man Called Ove in this heartwarming, witty story about the life of an extraordinary woman, told through her letters. In her letters to family and friends, we come to know the life of Sybil Van Antwerp—stubborn, cantankerous, opinionated, always steadfast in her belief in the power of the written word. But as the clock...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, a novel about a family living alone on a remote island, when a mysterious woman washes up on shore. 'At once a gripping mystery, an exquisitely written ode to the natural world, and a taut, psychological thriller, Wild Dark Shore is a triumph. Charlotte McConaghy is...

'You knew I'd write a book about you someday' Our narrator understands good love stories — their secrets, their highs, and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules. She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire...

The incredible first memoir from the Booker-winning radical icon Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things. Arundhati Roy's first work of memoir, this is a soaring account, both intimate and inspiring, of how the author became the person and the writer she is, shaped by circumstance, but above all by her relationship to her extraordinary, singular mother Mary,...

A story of the lives of the three people who make a family, the one moment in history that shatters what held them together, and the reverberations of that event that last a lifetime. 'Ferociously smart and full of surprises, Flashlight is thrilling to the last' — Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood 'A writer at the top of her...

Excellent...entrancing and disturbing. The New York Times One of the world's best investigative journalists tells the true story of Chinese twins forcibly separated as babies through adoption trafficking, raised on opposite sides of the globe and only reunited as teens. In 2000, a Chinese woman gave birth to twins in a bamboo grove, trying to avoid detection by the government...

Flashlight by Susan Choi is shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, presenting an astonishing story of one family swept up in the tides of the twentieth century, ranging from Japan to the USA to the North Korean regime. One evening, ten-year-old Louisa and her father take a walk out on the breakwater. They are spending the summer in a coastal...

The story of a hotel. The story of a nation. When the Inter-Continental Kabul opened in 1969, Afghanistan's first luxury hotel symbolised a dream of a modernising country connected to the world. More than fifty years on, the Inter-Continental is still standing. It has endured Soviet occupation, multiple coups, a grievous civil war, a US invasion and the rise, fall...

The mesmerising new novel from the author of Intimacies that asks who we are to the people we love. Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She's an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He's attractive, troubling, young—young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this...

A mesmerising, mind-expanding global story which shows how trees have learned to use the soil, air, water, plants, fungi, fire, animals, and people around them to shape our world - possessing agency beyond anything we might have imagined. The Genius of Trees tells a mind-expanding global story revealing the inventive and astonishing ways trees have learned to shape our natural...

In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her two-year-old daughter Mishti, and her elderly father Dadu are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover...

The world's leading expert reveals how making and consuming art improves our health, makes us happier, and can even help us live longer. Discover how art can improve our health, make us happier and even help us live longer with the inspiring new book from the award-winning scientist and world-leading expert. Every day we are overwhelmed by advice on how...

The acclaimed author of Free returns with an imaginative investigation into dignity and historical injustice through the story of a family. When Lea Ypi discovers a photo of her grandmother, Leman, honeymooning in the Alps in 1941 posted by a stranger on social media, she is faced with unsettling questions. Growing up, she was told records of her grandmother's youth...

Moderation is a novel that refuses to do things by halves. It is a piercing, laser-precise exploration of big tech... breathtakingly funny... and a highly charged, passionate and tender love story. A wonderful book. Kaliane Bradley, bestselling author of The Ministry of Time Girlie, a thirty-something Filipinx-American, works a day job at a social-media moderation centre, flagging and removing the...

An Observer Best Debut Novel 2025 Shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 'What a joy it is to read' Michael Magee, author of Close to Home 'I couldn't put this book down' Sheena Patel, author of I'm A Fan 'Powerful, moving, compelling, utterly enthralling' Jon McGregor, author...

'I've been waiting for a book like this' Florence Welch 'Hopeful and inspiring, Finding Albion is a vital quest for more authentic stories of Britain.' Caroline Lucas Zakia Sewell is on a quest for another Britain. Traversing the length and breadth of our island from Somerset to Scotland, she's seeking out a different story - one that lies beyond divisive...

"This is one hell of a novel. It’s absolutely outstanding. Once I entered this world I didn’t want to leave." -Roxane GayIn the town of Dominion, Mississippi, Reverend Sabre Winfrey, Jr.is more than a preacher. From his pulpit at the Seven Seals Baptist Church to the airwaves of his local radio station, he exerts influence over every aspect of society....

A sharply-witted and tender portrait of a young girl's quiet rebellion and her refusal to be broken. Set in 1960s Bradford, The Mercy Step follows Mercy, a precocious young child facing a world far too big for her small body. She lives with her Windrush-generation parents in a crowded household where her mother's attention is stretched between church and family,...

Nation of Strangers aims to open a global conversation about our contemporary understanding of home, in the way How to Lose a Country did for the global rise of Fascism and Together for the progressive politics of emotions as an antidote to new Fascism. The book will define the identity of the 'homeless' beyond the clichés of victim and survivor....

‘Miraculous’ OMAR EL AKKAD‘Stunning’ MAAZA MENGISTE‘Heartbreakingly urgent’ JUSTIN TORRES‘Quite astonishing’ JOY WILLIAMS‘Read it, read it, read it’ RABIH ALAMEDDINEThe intimate, sweeping tale of one man’s restless search for home, as the pendulum of fate swings between loss and life, grief and euphoria, regret and hope. A New Arab most anticipated book of 2026. All his life, exile has been the...

An unflinching and profoundly moving account of caring until death, from Booker-Prize-longlisted Sarah Perry. Please read this book. It may very well change how you live – Rachel Clarke I was spellbound – Kathryn Mannix Death of an Ordinary Man is an unforgettable account of this universal aspect of life. It is not a book about grief; it is a...

A story of the lives of the three people who make a family, the one moment in history that shatters what held them together, and the reverberations of that event that last a lifetime. Ferociously smart and full of surprises, Flashlight is thrilling to the last – Eleanor Catton, author of Birnam Wood A writer at the top of her...

She smelled like jasmine. No, not exactly. She smelled like the earth beneath a jasmine plant on a hot day. Most of us are poets, she said. It’s just a question of how it comes out. When a creative writing academic becomes infatuated with his colleague – the poet – it is not long before it begins to threaten his...

It is 1989, and in a small Baltic city in East Germany, the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, three young people from vastly different backgrounds become friends. Armando is a factory worker from Mozambique, Lolita is a medical student from India, and Theo is an East Berliner who dreams of being a writer. When Armando and Lolita make a grisly discovery, they...

What do you do when the life you planned is dramatically interrupted? What does it mean to heal, when the world won't stop asking what's wrong with you? At the age of 22, Grace Spence Green's spine was broken at the fourth thoracic vertebra. One day, she was in hospital supporting patients, the next she was fighting for her own...

How life was lived in one of Paris's great hotels, before, during and after the Second World War. The Hotel Lutetia is a Paris institution, the only 'grand' hotel on the city's bohemian Left Bank. Ever since it opened, it has served as a meeting place for artists, musicians and politicians. André Gide took his lunch here, James Joyce lived...

When Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason’s eldest daughter, Isata, made her solo debut at the BBC Proms in 2023, she could not have been prouder. Watching years of hard work transform into a transcendent performance was profoundly moving, both as a music-lover and parent. All fractured when her younger daughter came to her in tears a few days later, having read online abuse...

'A profoundly compassionate novel of devastating power' Bernardine Evaristo, Booker Prize-Winning author of Girl, Woman, Other 'So deeply moving: sad and beautiful and true' Annie Macmanus, author of The Mess We're In Paulette's the kind of woman who likes the future all mapped out: the wedding to Denton, the Caribbean honeymoon, the gingham quilt on the baby's crib. Until one...

When Jenny Evans was in her twenties, she was heady with the excitement of a promising acting career, but her world stopped when she was sexually assaulted by a man whose name was known in households everywhere - the 'Famous Man'. But this memoir isn't about him. Or what he did. It's about Jenny. The woman behind the headlines. After...

Judith Mackrell has done an incredible job in bringing to life the stories of these two great artists - Anthony D'Offay This is a must read . . . a deeply moving account of a family bursting with talent - Anne Sebba In Artists, Siblings, Visionaries, acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell turns her attention to British brother and sister artists Gwen...

A beautiful, vibrant and surprising memoir about love, desire and marriage... one question at a time. In the early hours of dawn in Amsterdam, Deepa Paul rises from her boyfriend's bed. She gets dressed, slips away with a kiss and cycles home, where she is welcomed into the arms of her husband, whose contentment is mellow alongside her own. There...

'Not simply a memoir. It is an indictment of failure at the highest levels of police, press and politics.' Tom Watson 'Intensely personal ... turning fear into bravery and pain into power.' Cosmopolitan 'A powerful memoir ... the astonishing story of her fight for justice.' Guardian 'Stunning ... an extraordinary read, full of unimaginable courage and resilience ... wisdom, humility...

Gloria has a learning disability. She’s nineteen, and there’s nothing to do except wander the local parks, look for friendship and keep out of trouble – or go round Jack’s. Jack needs Gloria's company, but he’s unpredictable and angry at the world. After an act of violence, their friendship has to end. Now Gloria's on her own. But when she...

Qianze has not seen her father in eleven years, since he walked out of her life the night of her fourteenth birthday and disappeared without a trace. But then she gets a call-there is a man on the porch of her childhood home, and he's asking for her. This man isn't the Ba Qianze remembers: he is much older, more...