UK author M John Harrison’s End of Everything wins Booker Prize

Harrison, 81, becomes the oldest winner of the prestigious prize, whose previous winners include Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood. British ‌‌author M John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize ⁠⁠for his ⁠⁠dystopian satire novel, The End of Everything, becoming ⁠⁠the oldest winner in the literary award’s history. The Booker judges unanimously selected the 198-page book on Monday, saying it can be read as a “thriller, a mystery, a satire, a dystopia, a road novel, a work of realism”.

The novel, whose themes of “catastrophe and apocalypse” chime with our uneasy times, is the first work of science fiction to win the prestigious literary award. Harrison beat five other finalists, including previous winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James. He was awarded the 50,000 British pound ($67,000) prize at a ceremony in London.

The End of Everything is set on the southeast English coast in the near future, after an unspecified calamity shattered society and brought an influx of enigmatic alien entities to Britain.