Shocking Upset: This Year’s Booker Prize Winner Revealed!
A novel about disaster
The End of Everything follows a man gathering artifacts from the ruined banks of the English Channel. His work takes a dangerous turn when he discovers a mysterious creature that threatens the world he knows.
The Booker committee described the novel as both concerned with the present and deeply serious. Harrison said current affairs informed its themes and satire, including the challenge of building a life amid continuing disaster.
Harrison’s long career
Harrison, 81, is the oldest person to win the Booker Prize. The novel is his 13th, following a career in science fiction and speculative writing that began in 1971.
His earlier books include Signs of Life, published in 1996, and Light, published in 2002. He was a Booker Prize judge in 2022 and has also received the Boardman Tasker Prize, the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
The shortlist and award
This year’s judges included novelist Patricia Lockwood and Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker. They considered 163 novels published in 2026, first selecting 13 for the longlist and then six for the shortlist.
The shortlist included The End of Everything, Black Bag, The Disappearers, John of John, May We Feed the King and The Things We Never Say. The prize was presented in London on November 9, and the winning author receives £50,000.
Other prizes from the foundation
The Booker Prize Foundation also awards the Booker International Prize for novels in translation. This year, that award went to Taiwan Travelogue by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ. Beginning next year, the foundation will also present a Booker Prize for Children’s Fiction.
Key points
- M. John Harrison won the Booker Prize for The End of Everything.
- At 81, Harrison is the oldest author to win the award.
- The prize carries £50,000; the ceremony took place in London on November 9.
- The judges considered 163 novels before selecting a six-book shortlist.