The Vivisectors: Longlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction 2026
'Sharply intelligent' THE TIMES'Exquisitely crafted' HANNAH MURRAY'Ingenious' SOPHIE MACKINTOSH'Astonishing' MICHAEL MAGEEThe acclaimed author of The Doloriad returns with a wildly imaginative new novel following a reclusive graduate as her attempts to navigate campus conspiracies set her on a collision course that will upend her life.In a famed but crumbling university city overrun by vegetation, where power is held in a fragile balance between the academics and a contingent of rogue gardeners, Agathe spends her days listlessly propping up the career of her fraudulent professor boss. One day, a campus scandal erupts: Adam, a contrarian and the pet student of her boss, comes into heated conflict with a rising young professor, with both men claiming discrimination.As the crisis consumes the university, Agathe's boss instructs her to gather information by befriending Adam. Agathe soon finds herself both caught up in the events tearing the city apart and increasingly drawn towards the alluring student at the heart of it all. But can anyone be taken at their word in a struggle over the truth?Coursing with icy suspense and rendered with violent precision, The Vivisectors is a new kind of love story for a broken era. Missouri Williams holds up a mirror to humanity's most intimate contradictions in a novel of blazing spiritual reckoning.'Missouri Williams writes with a gothic angularity that puts her in a category of one. She swims in deep waters and surfaces now as a major writer for our age' PAUL LYNCH, author of Prophet Song'This novel left me awestruck ... I can't stop thinking about it' HANNAH MURRAY, author of The Make-Believe'Wicked and beguiling' AMY TWIGG, author of Spoilt Creatures'The anti-feel good hit of the year' FERNANDO A. FLORES, author of Brother Bronte'The extraordinary imagination of Missouri Williams' AMINA CAIN, author of Indelicacy'Clever, wilful, daring ... I had such a blast reading it' SUSANNAH DICKEY, author of Common Decency'Beautiful, disturbing ... I adored this book' HARRIET ARMSTRONG, author of To Rest Our Minds & Bodies