2026 Booker Prize: The Renovation by Kenan Orhan

by jenp27 on August 31, 2026

Next up for panel is The Renovation by Kenan Orhan. Five of our panel read this nominee and here are our reviews…

Kenan Orhan is a Turkish-American writer whose fiction has appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The Common, and elsewhere. His debut story collection, I Am My Country and Other Stories, was a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize and longlisted for the Story Prize. His work often explores Turkey, political upheaval, displacement, memory, and the experience of living between cultures. The Renovation, his first novel, was longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize.

Book Synopsis from Booker website: Dilara’s father is disappearing.

He has dementia and the disease steals a little more of him each day. Dilara has persuaded him to move in with her, hiring builders to adapt her apartment in preparation, but when the renovation is complete she discovers a big problem. Instead of a new bathroom, the builders have installed a Turkish prison cell.

At first she is outraged. There has surely been some mistake. Dilara’s family are exiles – they left Turkey many years ago and have never been back. The last thing she wants is a piece of her estranged homeland appearing uninvited in her new home.

But as the weeks pass, her indignation gives way to curiosity. Beyond the cell door, she glimpses Turkish guards going about their work. Through the cell walls, she hears Turkish prisoners murmuring, rustling, crying out in their sleep. And in the strange, impossible air of the cell itself, she smells the sesame scent of freshly baked simit, she tastes the fine dust of the Anatolian steppe on her tongue.

Even as she struggles to care for her father, to keep the family finances afloat and stop the wheels coming off her marriage, Dilara is drawn back again and again to the mysterious prison cell, and through it to a city that once belonged to her – to the salt wind off the Marmara, the sky full of gulls and domes and minarets – back to Istanbul.

Nicole’s Thoughts: I was very excited about this book, I thought that the idea of the reno ending up as a prison cell was genius. Then I started the book at was worried the prison was going to be gimmicky. It wasn’t. It was an overt metaphor and also probably deeper and subtler ones, but subtlety tends to go over my head.

It’s not a happy story. Immigrants from Turkey to Italy to escape Erdogan (with a smile over the G) … Dad’s health is bad. Nobody’s mental health is particularly stellar; the protagonist is just trying to survive. It’s an immigration story, a family tale, escaping an authoritarian rule, a survival story and a portrait of grief. What if your escape turns out to be capture?

The writing was excellent. One of my favorite books on the list so far.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 4/4
Plot development: 4/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total: 18/20

Jen’s Thoughts: This was such a clever and heartbreaking book. Of all the books I’ve read from the list so far, it was the first to make me tear up (okay, maybe I shed a tear or two), and one of the few that had me stopping to highlight and underline passages along the way.

It’s a very bold and ambitious debut novel. Early on, it reminded me a bit of Kafka, particularly in its strange, disorienting sense of being trapped within a system that doesn’t quite make sense, although that comparison faded for me as the book progressed and it became more of a reflection on memory and exile.

What I appreciated most was the way the author wove the father’s dementia into the larger ideas of the novel rather than treating it as a separate storyline. The different forms of confinement throughout the book begin to echo one another, and I thought the metaphor of the jail cell was particularly effective. There was something deeply moving about the way the novel explored memory, identity, family, and what happens when the structures that once made our lives feel stable begin to fall away. I thought it was a strong novel and deserved a spot on the longlist.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 3/4
Plot development: 3/4
Overall enjoyment: 2/2
Total: 16/20

Tracy’s Thoughts: I was unsure when I picked this up- reading the synopsis, I knew the prison cell was going to be a metaphor, or possibly many, but was concerned it would be overdone. I was wrong- this was well written and I found myself liking it a great deal.

I have a friend and coworker who has family in Turkey, and we have discussed the events mentioned in the book, so I felt like I actually knew something (for a change) about the political background. And as a health care professional, as well as multiple in-laws with dementia, I could relate to the caregiver aspect. Plus, it was just nicely done- the cell-as-metaphor for homesickness, needing to belong, escape from responsibility, etc- clear, but also contained (sorry!) My biggest issue- choices made by characters- the husband, and Dilara in the end.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Character development: 3/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1.5/2
Total: 15/20

Anita’s Thoughts: Cards on the table; I am not a fan of magical realism. Here it was well done. The bathroom that is remodeled into a prison cell is metaphor, and it works. But I admired this book more than I liked it. I really enjoyed the educational aspects where the declining political situation is well described. I also thought the father’s dementia was very well handled and felt very true to life. The prison cell was so symbolic and worked on multiple levels: The protagonist is trapped – trapped by her father, trapped in exile, trapped by her husband’s abandonment and the subsequent lack of resources. But, the second half of the book felt untethered, unfocused. And I never felt true empathy for Dilara . . .she didn’t feel fully realized to me in all her humanity.

Writing quality: 5/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 14/20

Lisa’s Thoughts: This book is about longing for a home that you cannot go back to, the dangers of authoritarian regimes, and caring for a parent with dementia. A vivid sense of longing came through, and that feeling is what sticks with me. There was not much in the way of plot development. But at least I finished it, which is more than I can say for some of the other long list choices.

Writing quality: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Character development: 2/4
Plot development: 2/4
Overall enjoyment: 1/2
Total: 13/20

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