Black Bag by Luke Kennard — Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2026. A brilliantly funny, inventive novel about identity, masculinity, and the absurdities of modern life.
An out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime: sitting soundlessly in a university lecture theatre, zipped into a large black leather bag, as part of a professor’s psychological experiment. The pay is cash. The instructions are simple. What could possibly go wrong?
As the weeks pass, the experiment takes on a life of its own. A professor of post-humanism develops unexpected research questions of her own — including whether it is possible to love someone hidden inside a black bag. Meanwhile, the actor’s childhood friend sees an opportunity to monetize the situation in the attention economy. What began as a quiet academic study quickly spirals into something far stranger.
Inspired by a real 1960s psychology experiment, Black Bag is a warped campus novel, an off-kilter love story, and a sharp investigation into the crisis of masculinity. Blazingly funny yet profoundly humane, it is a firework of a book that fizzes with wit, invention, and surprising emotional depth.
“The funniest and smartest novel I’ve read in a while.” — Zadie Smith
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