M. John Harrison, 81, becomes oldest Booker Prize winner

British science fiction writer M. John Harrison won the 2026 Booker Prize on Monday for "The End of Everything." At 81, he is now the oldest winner in the prize's history. The judges said the book combines "huge ambition" with "extraordinary, expert writing," and he received the £50,000 ($67,000) award at a ceremony in London, AP reported. The win also means a writer from the core of the science fiction world has taken the prize, one of the best-known awards in English-language fiction.apnews.com

A unanimous decision

The ceremony took place at Old Billingsgate, a former fish market in London. Last year's winner, David Szalay, handed over the trophy, according to The Independent. The judges were chaired by historian Mary Beard. The other panelists were Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, poet Raymond Antrobus, novelist Patricia Lockwood and critic Rebecca Liu, and Beard said their choice was unanimous. "There was a lot of discussion and disagreement and debate, but nobody stomped off," she told AP.independent.co.uk+1

Harrison beat five other finalists. They included previous winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart, who were the bookmakers' favorites, and Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout, CNN reported. The shortlist also included Luke Kennard's "Black Bag" and Rebecca Perry's debut "May We Feed the King," and the judges chose it from 163 submissions. Harrison replaces Margaret Atwood as the oldest winner. She was 79 when she shared the prize in 2019, the Booker Prizes noted.cnn.com+1

Breaking a genre barrier

Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said many earlier winners had "borrowed facets of science fiction," but Harrison is "the first Booker winner to have emerged from the bona fide SF world," NPR reported. Harrison previously won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for "Nova Swing." Before the result, he said he had spent "40 to 50 years" trying to get well-written science fiction accepted as literary fiction, per AP. Beard called the win "recognition of what some people would see as the blindingly obvious, that you find great books in every genre." She also stressed that the prize is "not a lifetime achievement award."wlrn.org+1

A disaster no one understands

At 198 pages, the novel is Harrison's 13th and was the shortest book on the shortlist, The Independent noted. It is set on the Kent coast in the near future, after an unexplained catastrophe and the arrival of shape-shifting beings called the iGhetti. It follows Phillip, a beachcomber, and his aunt Marnie.independent.co.uk

Critics have been divided. Reviewers called it both "bleak but brilliant" and "dreamlike and baffling," the BBC reported. Harrison said he kept explanations to a minimum on purpose. "It is a disaster story where the true disaster lies in the inability to understand," he said, according to the BBC.bbc.com