Black Bag: A Novel

SHORTLISTED 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?

In Luke Kennard’s audacious new novel, a penniless actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. Dr. Blend wants to know: how will his students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures?

The role, eagerly accepted, soon yields unexpected consequences, from a professor of post-humanism developing research questions of her own—in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag?—to the actor’s childhood friend forming a vision for monetizing this unique new situation. In the end, only Black Bag will be able to say what it all means . . .

A warped campus novel, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity, and an off-kilter love story, Black Bag is a firework of a novel: blazingly funny and profoundly humane.

“A comedic masterpiece. Part SNL sketch, part Spike Jonze film.” —Ben Purkert, author of The Men Can’t Be Saved