M. John Harrison wins Booker Prize with sci-fi novel
The 81-year-old author becomes the oldest winner in the award's history, taking home £50,000 for his post-apocalyptic story.
By Ivan Dvorak ·
M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for The End of Everything. The award, which recognizes the best fiction published in the U.K. and Ireland, carries a cash prize of £50,000, or approximately $67,000. Harrison, 81, is now the oldest author to take the honor since the prize began.
Mary Beard, who chaired the judging panel, described the novel in a statement as a work that turns readers upside down and leaves them with a sense of optimism despite its dark themes. She noted that the book raises a wry smile. The panel also included poet Raymond Antrobus, musician Jarvis Cocker, editor Rebecca Liu, and author Patricia Lockwood.
The novel follows a man named Philip and his aunt Marnie in a post-apocalyptic future. They search for artifacts along the coast of Kent, England, while dealing with a slow invasion by shape-shifting entities called iGhetti. Harrison said in an interview with the Booker Prize team that the story was inspired by current events. He asked what happens when expectations and explanations of the world become a disaster, yet people still have to make a life.
This is Harrison's 13th novel. He has spent most of his career writing science fiction. In 2006, his book Nova Swing won both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. Those honors recognize the best science fiction in the U.K. and U.S., respectively.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, wrote that while past winners have used science fiction elements, Harrison is the first winner to come directly from the science fiction genre. She called him a genuinely original thinker and a genre-defying writer who takes ideas seriously.
Other books on the shortlist this year included Marlon James' The Disappearers and Elizabeth Strout's The Things We Never Say. The previous winner, David Szalay, presented the trophy to Harrison. Szalay won the 2025 prize with his novel Flesh.
