{"title":"The Booker Prize 2026","description":"\u003cp\u003eBrowse our selection of books longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, featuring two previous winners and three debut novels. \u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-renovation","title":"The Renovation","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDilara is having her bathroom renovated. Her father's memory has started collapsing, dementia stealing a little more of him each day; her apartment must be adapted so he can move in with her. But when the builders finally unveil their handiwork, there is a problem: instead of a new bathroom, they have built a prison cell. Not just any cell - one that Dilara recognises. It is a room from Silivri Prison in Istanbul.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt first she is outraged, exasperated, determined to reverse the bizarre mistake. Dilara's family are political exiles: they fled Turkey years ago and have never been back. The last thing she wants is a piece of her abandoned homeland appearing uninvited in her new home. But gradually her indignation gives way to curiosity. Even as she struggles to care for her dying father, to stretch their dwindling savings and stop the wheels coming off her marriage, she is drawn back again and again to the mysterious prison cell, which seems to connect, impossibly, to a city that once belonged to her - to the salt wind off the Marmara, the sky full of gulls and domes and minarets - a portal back to Istanbul.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55518021681528,"sku":"9780241745779","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/TheRenovationNationalTheatreShop.jpg?v=1785931045"},{"product_id":"the-shadow-of-the-object","title":"The Shadow of the Object","description":"\u003cp\u003eA magnificent work of shadow-play and a meditation on desire, metamorphosis and mortality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFlora is visiting home in Mexico when the family dog leaps up and bites her hand. She winds up in hospital where she undergoes several surgeries under anaesthesia and meets Wilhelmina, an elderly German woman with pneumonia, who collects pre-cinema toys and instruments. The two of them embark on a series of dream-like conversations in the hospital corridors. Wilhelmina puts on a magic lantern show for Flora, leaving her spellbound.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen things take an unexpected turn, Flora finds herself entrusted with an important mission. She returns to London, where she resumes her job polishing silver at a jewellery shop, and strikes up a strange friendship with Wilhelmina’s son, Max. As Flora dips in and out of her imagination, she is increasingly aware it’s not only the magic lantern that projects, and her perception of reality is subtly altered.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55624700723576,"sku":"9781784746377","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/TheShadowoftheObjectNationalTheatreShop.jpg?v=1785930664"},{"product_id":"helen-of-nowhere","title":"Helen of Nowhere","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn the middle of the countryside, a realtor is showing a disgraced professor around an idyllic house. She speaks not only about the home's many wonderful qualities but about its previous owner, the mystifying Helen, whose presence still seems to suffuse every fixture. Through hearing stories of Helen's chosen way of living, the man begins to see that his story is not actually over – rather, he is being offered a chance to buy his way into the simple life, close to the land, that's always been out of reach to him. But as evening fades into black, he will learn that the asking price may be much higher, and stranger, than anticipated. Philosophically and formally adventurous, at once intimate and cosmic in scope, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eHelen of Nowhere\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e asks: What must we give up in exchange for true happiness?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55624709407096,"sku":"9781804272206","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/HelenofNowhereNationalTheatreShop.jpg?v=1785930815"},{"product_id":"the-end-of-everything-astrophysically-speaking","title":"The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYou're going to die. The Earth will, one day, be toast. So too, our Sun will eventually shine its last. But what's next?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe End of Everything\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis a unique exploration of the destruction of the cosmos. Drawing on cutting edge technology and theory, as well as hot-off-the-presses results from the most powerful telescopes and particle colliders, astrophysicist Katie Mack describes how small tweaks to our incomplete understanding of reality can result in starkly different futures. Our universe could collapse in upon itself, or rip itself apart, or even - in the next five minutes - succumb to an inescapable expanding bubble of doom.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis fascinating, witty story of cosmic escapism examines a beautiful but unfamiliar physics landscape while sharing the excitement a leading astrophysicist feels when thinking about the universe and our place in it. Amid stellar explosions and bouncing universes, Mack shows that even though we puny humans have no chance of changing how it all ends, we can at least begin to understand it.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55624709472632,"sku":"9780141989587","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/TheEndofEverythingNationalTheatreShop.jpg?v=1785931153"},{"product_id":"may-we-feed-the-king","title":"May We Feed the King","description":"\u003cp\u003eShe is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe is a reluctant ruler with no hunger for power, rushed to the throne after the untimely deaths of his older brothers. But it isn't long before whispers begin to fly around the court. And with the growing belief that the King is not fit for the throne comes the idea that another might rule in his stead.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMay We Feed the King\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003edances between the lives of a historical subject who risks the future of his kingdom and a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present. Laced with desire and longing, it is a playful, stirring meditation on history and storytelling: on what makes a King 'Great', and a life meaningful.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55624932622712,"sku":"9781803513867","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/MayWeFeedTheKingNationalTheatreShop.jpg?v=1785934963"},{"product_id":"black-bag","title":"Black Bag","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr Blend's students react to someone zipped into on oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of autumn term lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own, in particular can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag? Meanwhile, the actor's childhood friend and flatmate forms a vision for monetising this new situation . . .\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA warped campus novel, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity and an off-kilter love story, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBlack Bag\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a firework of a novel: blazingly funny and profoundly humane.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55624932655480,"sku":"9781399826112","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/BlackBagNationalTheatreShop.jpg?v=1785937198"},{"product_id":"the-things-we-never-say","title":"The Things We Never Say","description":"Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a kind word to those who need it most. He goes to holiday parties with his wife of three decades, makes small talk with neighbours, and, on weekends, takes his sailboat out on the beautiful Massachusetts Bay. He is, by all appearances, present and alive. But inside, Artie is plagued by feelings of isolation. He looks out at a world gone mad—at himself and the people around him—and turns a question over and over in his mind: how is it that we know so little about one another, even those closest to us?\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eAnd then, one day, Artie learns that life has been keeping a secret from him, one that threatens to upend his entire world. Once he learns it, he is forced to chart a new course, to reconsider the relationships he holds most dear—and to make peace with the mysteries at the heart of our existence.\r\u003cbr\u003e\r\u003cbr\u003eWith exquisite prose and profound insight, Elizabeth Strout captures the way grief reverberates through decades, the comfort found in deep friendships and the freedom that comes when we break free of our secrets. The Things We Never Say is a stunning new novel from one of our most acclaimed observers of the human heart.","brand":"National Theatre Shop","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55624933474680,"sku":"9780241814307","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0257\/9562\/5032\/files\/The_Things_We_Never_Say.jpg?v=1785937448"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.nationaltheatre.org.uk\/zh-hans\/collections\/the-booker-prize-2026.oembed","provider":"National Theatre Shop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}