Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest announces its 2026 book longlists in five categories

The longlists for the Literature Live! Literary Awards for Fiction, NonFiction and Business have been announced. The awards aim to recognise and encourage literary talent across genres, for both established and new writers. The winners will be announced at a special ceremony in Mumbai on October 25.

Here are the longlists in each category:

Fiction

The jury for fiction comprises theatre and film director, actor, and writer Akash Khurana, media founder Alex Kuruvilla, writer Iffat Nawaz, actor and director Lillette Dubey, and communications professional and associate festival director of Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest Shireen Mistry.

Book of the year

• Railsong: A Novel, Rahul Bhattacharya, Bloomsbury India

• Real Life, Amrita Mahale, Penguin Random House India

• The Complex, Karan Mahajan, HarperCollins Publishers India

• The Elsewhereans, Jeet Thayil, HarperCollins Publishers India

• The Greatest Game: Being The Further Adventures of Kimball O’Hara, Stephen Alter, Aleph Book Company

• The Way Home: Stories, Shanta Gokhale

Best first book

• Good Arguments, Deepika Arwind

• Lonely People Meet, Sayantan Ghosh

• The Jasmine Murders: An Uma-Jayan Mystery, Roopa Unnikrishnan

• The Remnants of Rebellion: A Novel, Ponnu Elizabeth Mathew

• The Sirens of September, Zeenat Khan

• The Tree with Eyes and Other Stories, Bela Negi

Non-Fiction

The jury for non-fiction comprises former police chief AN Roy, media entrepreneur Maneck Davar, lawyer Sharon Coutinho, Yusuf Meherally Centre chairperson Sonal Shah, and writer and associate festival director of Godrej Literature Live! The Mumbai Litfest Tina Nagpaul.

Book of the year

• A Sixth of Humanity: Independent India’s Development Odyssey, Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian

• Believer's Dilemma: Vajpayee...

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