Booker Prize longlist reviews highlight Switzy and May We Feed the King

Ahead of the Booker Prize shortlist announcement, reviews of longlisted novels highlight diverse themes and narrative styles.

Emma Cline’s Switzy is noted for its intimate portrait of a man facing dementia while traveling to Switzerland for assisted death. The novel explores themes of guilt and final goodbyes through a close-third-person perspective.

In contrast, Rebecca Perry’s May We Feed the King, which previously won the 2026 Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, is described as a clever but emotionally distant work. The novel uses a curator to reconstruct the life of a forgotten medieval king, examining the gaps between historical records and the narratives constructed from them. While praised for its formal innovation and structural ingenuity, the work is noted for prioritizing thematic questions over character engagement.