Black Bag by Luke Kennard
Shortlisted for The Booker Prize 2026.
Find yourself in Black Bag: a warped campus novel, an investigation into masculinity, and an off-kilter love story.
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781638933380
- Page Count
- 352
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 6¼ x 9¼
- Imprint
- Zando
Meet the Author
Luke Kennard
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
“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
Praise for Black Bag
-
“In a wonderfully quirky campus novel, Kennard combines an absurd experiment with a moving story about human frailty, passion, confusion and identity. There's something for everyone here.”
The Booker Prize -
“The funniest and smartest novel I've read in a while.”
Zadie Smith -
“Kennard is a poet by trade and it shows. He gives several flamboyant inner monologues to a Border collie, and an inspired riff on Justine’s ‘atavastic’ personal hygiene products reads like a description of Ziggy Stardust’s Dopp kit. The plot, such as it is, often veers off in odd and cosmic directions. But I like this book’s verve and style, and I often agreed with the dog.”
New York Times
Press for Black Bag
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Luke Kennard interview: 'I write best under pressure, and I need that sense of defiance'
The Booker Prizes
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What to read this summer by Mark Haddon, Samantha Harvey, Zadie Smith and more
The Guardian
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Luke Kennard’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel Black Bag
Largehearted Boy
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Black Bag | Excerpt
Literary Hub
About the Imprint
Where the unexpected lives. Fiction that surprises. Nonfiction that sticks. The Zando imprint publishes weird, wonderful, and culture-shaping stories from authors with something to say . . . and the confidence to say it loudly.
