by Iris
Author M. John Harrison has won the 2026 Booker Prize for his novel The End of Everything.
Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artefacts that wash up from the Channel. It’s been years since the crisis changed everything, but its exact nature remains obscure. Government barely functions, the seas are full of new creatures, Europe has been mislaid. It feels like the end.
Now Phillip has fished out of the water an object he can’t keep. A creature that keeps changing. An artefact he must take inland, before it destroys everything he thinks he knows. The End of Everything is a slyly satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic adventure into the limits of human understanding from the peerless master of contemporary fiction.
This is what classicist, broadcaster and author Mary Beard, who chaired this year’s panel of judges, had to say: “The Booker judges spent a whole day debating the six remarkable novels on this year’s shortlist, before agreeing unanimously to award the 2026 prize to The End of Everything by M. John Harrison. It’s a book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism. Central to the story are Phillip Tennent and his elderly aunt Marnie, living on the south coast of England, a few decades into the future, some years after a mysterious catastrophe: an invasion of ‘iGhetti’ (the ‘i’ hinting at something digital, but you can’t be sure).”
The judges have also praised the story for its subtle, surreal and sly humor, and said that it offers something for everyone. Although I haven’t read the book yet, I personally like that M. John Harrison is the first science fiction author to win what is arguably the most prestigious literary award.
Intrigued? You can read an extract of the first chapter on the Booker Prizes website!
Cover image: © Yuki Sugiura for Booker Prize Foundation
