IndiaAIFounders — Here is the 2026 National Book Award Shortlist for Fiction

Just last month, the National Book Award judges announced their longlists for Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Translated Literature, and Young People’s Literature. Today, they’ve shared their shortlists for each of these categories.

The awards will be presented at the National Book Award Ceremony and Dinner in November, when finalists will be awarded $1,000 each, and the winners of each category will win $10,000 and a bronze medal.

Here are the five books on the shortlist for the 2026 National Book Award for Fiction, along with what critics and authors are saying about them.

Paradiso 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi

“Assadi (The Stars Are Not Yet Bells) spins a beautiful and heartbreaking novel out of a Palestinian man’s deathbed reflections.” —Publishers Weekly

““Paradiso 17,” her third work of fiction, is quiet and alert; it is a study in inheritance, in the afterlife of ideology, in the way history seeps into every curated idyll.” —The New York Times

Dèy by Edwidge Danticat

“A Haitian American woman reckons with the cost of hiding her pain in this illuminating novel from Danticat, winner of the NBCC award for Everything Inside.”—Publishers Weekly

“A powerful study of motherhood, nationhood, and violence.” —Kirkus

“Dèy” is a love song and an elegy for the Haitian diaspora.” —The New York Times

Pretend You’re Dead and I Carry You by Julián Delgado Lopera

Delgado Lopera (Fiebre Tropical) dives into Colombia’s taboo queer culture in this scintillating narrative of a man torn between belonging and self-expression.” —Publishers Weekly

“A fierce Colombian coming-of-age story shaped by grief and secrecy.” —Kirkus

Beginning Middle End by Valeria Luiselli

“A writer and her 12-year-old daughter grapple with their family legacy while on a road trip through Sicily in this arresting and layered novel from Luiselli (Lost Children Archive)…It’s a masterpiece.” —Publishers Weekly

“An offbeat migration story as piercing and artful as any in Luiselli’s oeuvre.” —Kirkus

Mad Eden by Morgan Thomas

“Radically inventive, compassionate, and perspicacious. Compulsively page-turning.” —Kirkus

“This breathtaking and destabilizing story is a deep and honest dive into questions of caretaking, obligation, love, and queer and autistic survival in a hostile world.” —Library Journal

“A trans telehealth worker’s safety comes under threat just as they’ve found happiness with their partner in the brilliant debut novel from Thomas (Manywhere: Stories).” —Publishers Weekly