Iran’s turmoil in International Booker Prize spotlight

The Islamic Republic of Iran “is dead morally, economically, and socially”, wrote author Shahrnush Parsipur in a recent article in Time magazine.

Describing her country of birth as “a half-lifeless body collapsed on the ground, yet still possessing powerful arms”, the revolutionary Iranian writer rued the unrest and violent military crackdown that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians in the West Asian country.

Last week, 80-year-old Parsipur, who now lives in Amsterdam, found herself on the International Booker Prize 2026 longlist with her banned (in Iran) 1989 novella Women without Men, recently translated from the original Persian into English by Faridoun Farrokh. An evocative mystical tale about the interwoven destinies of five women, the book posits a future without men.

The writing on the war

Iran also features in 38-year-old Shida Bazyar’s debut novel The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran, translated from German by Ruth Martin, which takes readers through 40 years of a family’s life amid the ravages of war.

The other war titles on this year’s longlist for the £50,000 prize, divided equally between the author and translator, include Dutch writer Anjet Daanje’s World War I love story The Remembered Soldier, translated by David McKay, and award-winning French writer Mathias Énard’s historical fiction, The Deserters, translated by Charlotte Mandell.

Chair of judges Natasha Brown, whose satirical novel Universality was longlisted for last year’s Booker Prize, says, “Many of the submitted books examined the devastating consequences of war… The list also features petty squabbles between neighbours, mysterious mountain villages, Big Pharma conspiracies, witchy women, ill-fated lovers, a haunted prison, and obscure film references… ”

The longlist of 13 books includes several authors and translators who have been previously nominated for the International Booker, such as Argentinian environmental activist Gabriela Cabezón Cámara (We Are Green and Trembling, translated by Robin Myers), Bulgarian poet and actor Rene Karabash (She Who Remains, translated by Izidora Angel) and Kira Josefsson, who has translated Swedish author Ia Genberg’s short story collection, Small Comfort.

Indian-origin Canadian translator Padma Viswanathan is also on the longlist with Portuguese author Ana Paula Maia for their prison novella On Earth As It Is Beneath.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on March 31, followed by the winner on May 19. Last year, the Prize went to Kannada writer Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi for their short story collection Heart Lamp, about the everyday lives of ordinary Muslim women.