M. John Harrison Wins Booker Prize at Age 81
The 13th novel by the British author, a satirical sci-fi set in a post-apocalyptic future, earned the £50,000 award and a place in the literary canon.
By Chinedu Schneider ·
M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel The End of Everything.
The award recognizes the best fiction published in the U.K. and Ireland. The prize comes with a cash award of £50,000, which is approximately $67,000. Recipients also receive a trophy from the previous year's winner, author David Szalay.
Harrison, who is 81, is the oldest author to win the prize in its history. The book is his 13th novel. He has spent most of his career writing science fiction. His 2006 novel, Nova Swing, won both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Philip K. Dick Award.
The story follows a man named Philip and his aunt Marnie. They search for artifacts along the coast of Kent, England, in a post-apocalyptic setting. The plot involves a slow invasion by shape-shifting entities called the iGhetti.
Mary Beard, the chair of the judges panel, described the book as turning readers upside down. She said the novel raises a wry smile and leaves readers with a twinge of optimism. The panel also included poet Raymond Antrobus, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, editor Rebecca Liu, and novelist Patricia Lockwood.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, noted that Harrison is the first winner to come from the science fiction world. She called him a genuinely original thinker and a genre-defying writer. The other shortlisted books were The Disappearers by Marlon James and The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout.
Harrison told the Booker Prize team that he drew inspiration from current affairs. He asked what happens when expectations of the world become a disaster but people still have to make a life.
