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The 2026 Booker Prize winner is British science fiction writer Michael John Harrison. The judges noted his novel The End of Everything, which tells about the catastrophe that befalls humanity.
Harrison, 81, became the oldest Booker Prize winner in history. The previous oldest recipient was Margaret Atwood, who received the award in 2019 when she was 79.
He also became the first ever Booker Prize winner to come from the world of science fiction.
The writer, who publishes under the name M. John Harrison, first began appearing in the science fiction magazine New Worlds back in the 1960s. Harrison later worked as the book section editor for the publication.
He published 13 novels. Among his most famous works are the Viriconium series, as well as the novels Light and Nova Swing.
Although Harrison doesn't like his work to be categorized into any genre, he has been called a "titan of science fiction." “He is a truly original thinker, a genre-defining writer who takes ideas seriously,” said Man Booker Prize Foundation chair Gaby Wood.
After receiving the award, Harrison answered questions from ceremony participants. Among other things, he was asked what he would like to say to those readers who encountered his works for the first time.
“We live in a dark world and it will remain dark. There is something very strange about this,” the writer replied. “But when it’s all over, there may be some kind of hope or peace of mind waiting for us, but some kind of relief.”
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What they say about the winning novel
Harrison's award-winning novel, The End of Everything, is set in the near future after the world has suffered a mysterious catastrophe that has caused the collapse of society.
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The author of the novel said that he deliberately avoided a detailed description of the events that preceded this disaster, so that readers would experience the same feeling of disorientation as the heroes of the work.
“It's about disaster and apocalypse - and how in times of disaster and apocalypse it's impossible to understand what's really going on,” this year's jury head Mary Beard said during the ceremony. “But there are also many glimmers of optimism in the book.”
“We are lucky enough not to experience this in real life, but we tend to believe that when a disaster arrives, we will definitely be aware of what is happening, we will see its signs and we will be able to understand what exactly is happening,” Beard continued. “But Harrison says that when disaster strikes, you won’t even know what happened.”
Britain's Guardian newspaper praised the book but noted that the novel was "not for everyone," while the New York Times concluded, "The more we learn about life in the novel's fractured world, the harder it is to comprehend."
The Literary Review described the novel as "a work of equal parts horrific and startling in its beauty and tenderness."
The Telegraph reviewer concluded that the work "leaves the feeling that this is not reading, but dreaming."
Another Telegraph critic wrote: "In an age when overlords of artificial intelligence threaten our lives and the government advises us to stock up on canned food and bottled water, this is above all a novel that can be called truly timely."
Who else was shortlisted and who was awarded the Booker Prize
This year, two previous winners competed for the award: Jamaican writer Marlon James and Scottish-American author Douglas Stewart. James was nominated for his new novel The Disappearers, and Stewart was nominated for John of John.
Other nominees for the award include American writer and literary award winner Elizabeth Strout, as well as British authors Luke Kennard and Rebecca Perry.
The 2026 Man Booker Prize jury was chaired by writer and broadcaster Mary Beard, who specializes in ancient history. It also included British musician Jarvis Cocker, best known as the singer and songwriter of the Britpop group Pulp.
The Booker Prize is considered one of the most prestigious literary awards for writers working in the English language.
The prize is open to works of fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in Britain or Ireland in the last year.
The prize has been awarded since 1969. The winner of the Booker Prize receives 50 thousand pounds sterling (about 67 thousand US dollars) as a prize.
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