M. John Harrison wins Booker Prize at 81, becoming oldest winner

M. John Harrison, 81, became the oldest Booker Prize winner on Monday as his science-fiction novel The End of Everything won the 2026 award in London.

The British writer receives £50,000 (about $67,000). Harrison is two years older than Margaret Atwood, the previous oldest winner, was when she won in 2019.

Bookmakers had considered Harrison an outsider at the ceremony, with former winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James among their favourites.

Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said many past winners had "borrowed facets of science fiction in their work," but Harrison is "the first Booker winner to have emerged from the bona fide SF world."

Asked what he wanted readers to take from the novel, 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."

Judging chair Mary Beard said the novel "turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism."

In a statement, Beard said judges debated the six shortlisted books for a whole day before reaching a unanimous decision. She told The Associated Press the panel met for four or five hours and ultimately agreed unanimously.

"There was a lot of discussion, disagreement and debate," Beard told reporters. "But nobody stomped off."

Beard said the prize was not a lifetime achievement award. "We thought this was a book that had earned it," she said.

The other shortlisted novels were Stuart's John of John, James' The Disappearers, Black Bag by Luke Kennard, May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry and The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout.

In the novel, an unexplained catastrophe has broken society, and mysterious alien entities have come to Britain. Its setting is the English coast in the near future. Phillip Tennent, a beachcomber, discovers a shape-shifting artefact on the shore, while his elderly aunt Marnie, who carries a gun, is the other central character. The aliens are known as the iGhetti, and Beard said the "i" suggests something digital.

Before the prize, Harrison called the novel "a disaster story in which the disaster is the failure to comprehend," and "an absurdist, seaside catastrophe movie." He has said he withheld as much background explanation as possible to make readers feel the characters' disorientation.

Responses to the novel have been mixed. The BBC reported that the Guardian praised it while saying it "won't be for everyone," and AP said its elusive narrative has confused some critics. Beard called it "a challenging read, but some of the best fiction is challenging."

The End of Everything is Harrison's 13th novel and marks his first Booker nomination. Harrison started writing in the 1960s and received the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Nova Swing in 2007.

Wood said the Booker removed references to "literary fiction" from its materials because "all fiction is literary."

Harrison has spent decades arguing that science fiction should count as literary fiction. In an interview with the BBC before the award, he remembered a question from early in his career, "Why shouldn’t a well written S.F. be considered to be literary fiction?" Before winning, he said he had been "working for 40 to 50 years to shift the balance, both as a novelist and as a critic."

The 198-page book is Harrison's first novel in six years and had sold well before its Booker win, The Independent reported.