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Black Bag by Luke Kennard

from $11.20
Hardcover:

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026

“The funniest and smartest novel I've read in a while.” —Zadie Smith

An out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime—sitting soundlessly in a lecture theater, zipped into a large leather bag—to aid a professor’s psychological experiment. What could possibly go wrong?

A penniless actor takes a job unlike any other: sitting silently, zipped into an oversized leather bag, at the back of a university lecture hall — part of a professor's psychological experiment into how people react to what they can't explain.

What begins as an odd gig spirals into an investigation of masculinity, intimacy, and the modern attention economy, as one professor grows fascinated with the man inside the bag and a childhood friend sees dollar signs in going viral.

Black Bag is Luke Kennard at his sharpest — a warped campus novel and off-kilter love story that's blazingly funny and, somehow, profoundly humane.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2026

“The funniest and smartest novel I've read in a while.” —Zadie Smith

An out-of-work actor accepts the role of a lifetime—sitting soundlessly in a lecture theater, zipped into a large leather bag—to aid a professor’s psychological experiment. What could possibly go wrong?

A penniless actor takes a job unlike any other: sitting silently, zipped into an oversized leather bag, at the back of a university lecture hall — part of a professor's psychological experiment into how people react to what they can't explain.

What begins as an odd gig spirals into an investigation of masculinity, intimacy, and the modern attention economy, as one professor grows fascinated with the man inside the bag and a childhood friend sees dollar signs in going viral.

Black Bag is Luke Kennard at his sharpest — a warped campus novel and off-kilter love story that's blazingly funny and, somehow, profoundly humane.

  • Publisher: Zando

    Title: Black Bag

    Author: Luke Kennard

    On Sale Date: March 17, 2026

    ISBN 13: 978-1638933380

    ISBN 10: 1638933383

    Format: Hardcover

    Retail Price: $28.00

    BISAC: FICTION / Satire

    Page Count: 352

    Dimensions: 6.31 x 1.13 x 9.31 inches

    Weight: 1.25 lbs

  • Luke Kennard is an award-winning poet and novelist and a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Birmingham. His poetry collection Cain was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize, and Notes on the Sonnets won the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Poetry Collection. His debut novel, The Transition, was longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and adapted as a BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime. Black Bag, his third novel, marks his first Booker Prize longlisting.

  • Pre-release readers are calling it hilarious, audacious, and unforgettable:

    • Zadie Smith calls it "the funniest and smartest novel I've read in a while."

    • The Sunday Times calls it "a brilliant comic tour de force."

    • Booker Prize judges praised its "sharply crafted sentences and humour."

    • The Guardian says it's "a triumph... worth your time."

This book is for you if:

  • You want the funniest book on this year’s Booker Prize longlist.

  • You loved campus novels but wish they were weirder.

  • You’re drawn to satire that’s sharp about masculinity and the internet without ever feeling preachy.

  • You want a book Zadie Smith and the New York Times are both raving about.

  • You like fiction with a genuinely strange premise that somehow, completely, earns it.

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