Guest Newsletter: Five Books - The Booker Prize And Mesopotamia

• 1 min read

Five Books features in-depth author interviews recommending five books on a theme. You can read more interviews on the site, or sign up for the newsletter.

The Best Novels of 2026: The Booker Prize Shortlist

Each year, judges for the Booker Prize whittle their longlist down to a five- or six-book shortlist for the title of the best new novel of the previous twelve months. This year, the finalists include two previous Booker winners– Douglas Stuart and Marlon James – and a previous shortlistee in Elizabeth Strout. We asked Rebecca Liu, 2026 judge and Guardian journalist, to talk us through the shortlisted novels. Read more

Best Books on Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia, the fertile region between the Tigris and the Euphrates, is a hugely significant part of human history, yet has often been left out of the classical civilisations curriculum. Here, Moudhy Al-Rashid, author of Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History, recommends five recent books about Mesopotamia that shed light not only milestones of history, but on individual lives thousands of years ago. Read more

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