Indian-origin translator Padma Viswanathan makes International Booker Prize 2026 longlist

A novel of ‘brutality and moral decay’

On Earth As It Is Beneath, published by Edinburgh-based Charco Press on 12 August 2025, is set in a remote penal colony built on land where enslaved people were once tortured and murdered. The novel unfolds in a landscape where punishment has replaced justice and cruelty has become the norm. As the colony nears its end, the warden introduces a ritualised full-moon hunt, releasing prisoners into the forest for sport.

The International Booker Prize 2026 judging panel described the work as “a stark, unsettling exploration of power, violence, destruction and institutional corruption that will linger with readers long after the final page.”

“Set in a remote penal colony built on land scarred by slavery and colonialism, this vivid and haunting novel unfolds in a landscape where punishment has replaced justice and cruelty has become the norm,” the judges said. “Through spare yet masterful prose, Ana Paula Maia renders a closed world thick with dread, brutality and moral decay.”

Building bridges to Brazilian literature

Her translation of São Bernardo by Brazilian literary giant Graciliano Ramos was published by New York Review Books in 2020. The Los Angeles Review of Books praised her for making “a precious contribution to the body of English-language literature, adding to it the vibrant voice of one [of] the most important figures of 20th-century Brazilian letters.”

She is also co-editing, with renowned translator Daniel Hahn, the forthcoming Penguin Book of Brazilian Short Stories.

A literary career spanning continents

Viswanathan’s own writing has deep connections to India. Her debut novel The Toss of a Lemon, inspired by her family history, follows three generations of a Brahmin family through sixty years of social and political change in South India. The book became a national bestseller in India.

Her second novel, The Ever After of Ashwin Rao, was a finalist for the Giller Prize, while her most recent work, The Charterhouse of Padma (2024), explores the lives of two South Asian professors. Her memoir, Like Every Form of Love, was published in 2023.

Beyond her writing, Viswanathan is professor of creative writing at the University of Arkansas and founding director of the Arkansas International Writer-at-Risk Residency Programme, which supports writers fleeing persecution. She divides her time between Fayetteville, Arkansas, and Montreal.

The International Booker Prize is unique in recognising the vital role of translators, with the £50,000 prize money divided equally between the winning author and translator. Each shortlisted title receives £5,000, also shared equally.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on 31 March, with the winner revealed at a ceremony at Tate Modern in London on 19 May. The 2026 prize is supported by Bukhman Philanthropies.

Other notable longlisted titles

The International Booker Prize 2026 longlist © India Hobson for Booker Prize Foundation

The longlist features works from 14 nationalities, including Women Without Men by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh. Banned in Iran for over three decades, the novel follows five women seeking refuge in a garden against the backdrop of revolution. Parsipur was imprisoned for daring to write about women’s desires.

Also longlisted is Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ, translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, which the judges called “an incredible double act: it succeeds as both a delicious romance and an incisive postcolonial novel.”