(Photo courtesy of Anadolu)
WASHINGTON – British novelist M. John Harrison made literary history Monday after winning the 2026 Booker Prize for his dystopian novel The End of Everything, becoming the oldest recipient of the prestigious award at 81.
Harrison received the £50,000 ($67,232) prize during a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London, where 2025 winner David Szalay presented him with the honor.
His winning novel, the 13th of his career, tells the story of a beachcomber and his elderly aunt struggling to survive along England’s Kent coast following a mysterious catastrophe.
Their lives become increasingly complicated by the arrival of shape-shifting creatures known as the iGhetti.
At 198 pages, The End of Everything was the shortest among the six novels shortlisted for this year’s award.
Historian and broadcaster Mary Beard, who chaired the judging panel, said the judges unanimously selected Harrison’s work from 163 submissions.
Beard described the novel as “the politics of now seen through the lens of the future,” highlighting its combination of dark humor, political satire and an underlying sense of optimism.
The award marks a major milestone in Harrison’s six-decade writing career.
According to the Booker Prize Foundation, he is the first author whose literary background is primarily rooted in science fiction to receive the prize.
Harrison also surpassed Canadian novelist Margaret Atwood, who was 79 when she shared the Booker Prize in 2019.
This year’s shortlist included former Booker winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart, alongside Elizabeth Strout, Luke Kennard and Rebecca Perry.
The victory also marked the first Booker Prize win for independent publishing house Serpent’s Tail.
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize honors outstanding works of fiction written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, with writers from any country eligible to compete.
Despite his decades-long literary career, Harrison secured the award on his first Booker Prize nomination.
