British author M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for his dystopian satire The End of Everything. The winner was announced on Monday, 9 November, at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London.
At 81, Harrison is the oldest winner in the history of the prize. The previous record was held by Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she won in 2019.
The 198-page novel was chosen unanimously by the judges, who were chaired by historian Mary Beard. It is the first work of science fiction to win the Booker Prize.
Harrison receives £50,000 ($67,000) for the win. He was chosen ahead of five other finalists, including previous winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James.
The novel is set on the south-east English coast in the near future, after an unspecified calamity, as enigmatic alien entities arrive in Britain. It centres on a beachcomber who finds a puzzling, shape-shifting artefact on the shore.
Reflecting on the book’s outlook, Harrison said: “It’s a grim world, and it’ll keep on being grim. And it’s weird. But at the end of things, there may be some kind of – I wouldn’t say hope, or closure, but there might be some kind of relief.”
The Booker Prize was founded in 1969 and is open to English-language novels published in the UK and Ireland. Last year’s winner was Flesh by David Szalay.
Source: Al Jazeera
