SHORTLIST
Cover of Clear

Clear

Clear by Carys Davies is one of 2026's most credible books, appearing on 1 of the year's most respected lists, including The Guardian, for a Consensus Score of 13 out of 100.

Appears on these lists

Our take

AI-drafted

Davies works at the scale of a novella but with the density of an epic, compressing the Highland Clearances into an almost wordless standoff between an evicting minister and the last man on a remote island who speaks a dying invented language. What reviewers kept noting was the risk of the premise, and how Davies resists turning that into sentimental uplift; the ending divided readers precisely because it refuses a clean resolution.

In the press

  • Daring and necessary.
    The New York Times
  • Splendidly imagined.
    The Washington Post

How the Consensus Score is calculated

Our Consensus Score is our own transparent editorial metric — not a user rating. It weighs each list by the credibility of its source, how recent the listing is, and any award status. Here is the full breakdown.

SourceAuthorityRecencyAwardContribution
The Guardian0.850.701.00×0.59
Weighted sum → Score0.5913

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Frequently asked

What lists is Clear on?

Clear appears on 1 list in our 2026 corpus, including The Guardian.

What is its Consensus Score?

Clear has a Consensus Score of 13 out of 100, our transparent editorial measure of how many credible lists agree on it.