The End of Everything by British author M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize. In a statement, Mary Beard, chair of this year's judges, called it a book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism."
The satirical sci-fi novel follows Philip, a man who looks for "artifacts" along the coast in Kent, England, and his aunt Marnie. The book is set in a post-apocalyptic future, dealing with the slow-burning invasion of the shape-shifting iGhetti.
In an interview with the Booker Prize team, Harrison said he drew inspiration from current affairs: "What happens when all of our expectations and explanations of the world become an ongoing disaster, but we still have to make a life?"
At 81, Harrison is the oldest author to win in the history of the prize. He's had a decades-long writing career, with Everything being his 13th novel. Most of his career has been spent writing science fiction. His 2006 novel, Nova Swing, won both the Arthur C. Clarke and Philip K. Dick awards (which reward the best in science fiction in the U.K. and U.S., respectively).
"Many past Booker Prize authors have borrowed facets of science fiction in their work," wrote Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, in a statement. "But M. John Harrison is the first Booker winner to have emerged from the bona fide SF world. He is a genuinely original thinker, a genre-defying writer who takes ideas seriously."
The Booker Prize honors the best fiction published in the U.K. and Ireland. Besides Beard, this year's judges included the poet Raymond Antrobus, Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, editor and critic Rebecca Liu, and poet and novelist Patricia Lockwood. The other books shortlisted for the prize this year included Marlon James' The Disappearers and The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout.
Winners of the prize receive £50,000 (about $67,000), and a trophy presented by the previous year's winner. Author David Szalay won the 2025 prize with his novel Flesh.
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