Guwahati: British author M John Harrison has become the oldest-ever winner of the Booker Prize, receiving the prestigious literary award for his post-apocalyptic novel The End of Everything.

Harrison, 81, was announced as the winner at a ceremony in London on Monday. He will receive the £50,000 prize, marking a major achievement in a literary career spanning six decades.

Set in the aftermath of a mysterious catastrophe that causes British society to collapse, The End of Everything explores a world struggling to come to terms with an unexplained disaster and the arrival of mysterious alien beings.

The novel has attracted mixed reactions from readers and critics, with some describing it as bleak yet brilliant, while others have found its narrative dreamlike and difficult to follow.

Dame Mary Beard, who chaired this year’s Booker Prize judging panel, acknowledged that the novel was challenging but said some of the finest works of fiction demand such engagement.

“It’s a challenging read, but some of the best fiction is challenging,” she said.

Beard added that the novel unsettles readers, offers moments of wry humour and, despite its subject matter, leaves them with a sense of optimism.

Six decades of literary work

Harrison began writing in the 1960s and has published 13 novels, five collections of short stories and an “anti-memoir”.

With this win, he has surpassed Margaret Atwood to become the oldest author to receive the Booker Prize.

Although Harrison has resisted labels such as science fiction and fantasy, he is widely regarded as a major figure in literary science fiction.

Booker Prize chief executive Gaby Wood described him as a distinctive writer who has emerged from the science fiction world.

She called him an original thinker who challenges conventional genre boundaries and takes ideas seriously.

Wood said that although The End of Everything is unsettling, it is essentially a realist novel set in an unfamiliar world and populated by desperate, disoriented characters.

A story of disaster and disorientation

The novel follows a man and his aunt as they struggle to survive along England’s south-east coast after an unexplained catastrophe and the arrival of mysterious alien beings.

Harrison has deliberately left much of the disaster unexplained, allowing readers to experience the same uncertainty and confusion as the characters.

Describing the novel, the author said it was about attempting to continue living as though nothing had gone wrong. He characterised it as a disaster story in which the real catastrophe is the failure to understand what has happened.

He also said he wanted readers to share the characters’ sense of bewilderment as they confronted an uncertain future.

The approach has divided literary critics. While The Guardian praised the novel but noted that it might not appeal to everyone, The New York Times highlighted the difficulty of understanding the conditions of its fractured fictional world.

The Literary Review described the work as both tender and terrifying, while The Telegraph compared the reading experience to dreaming.

Another Telegraph review praised the novel’s literary skill and humour, suggesting that its themes were particularly relevant in an era marked by anxieties over artificial intelligence and disaster preparedness.

Other shortlisted authors

The Booker Prize recognises the best novel written in English and published during the year up to September 30. Established in 1969, it remains one of the most prominent literary awards.

The other five novels shortlisted for the 2026 award were:

  • The Disappearers by Marlon James
  • Black Bag by Luke Kennard
  • May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry
  • The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
  • John of John by Douglas Stuart

Announcing the shortlist in September, Beard had described the process of selecting the final six novels as demanding.

Other members of the judging panel also recalled intense discussions during the selection process. US novelist Patricia Lockwood said she had been “tossing books across the room”, while poet Raymond Antrobus described the process as a tussle.

The remaining judges were Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and journalist, editor and critic Rebecca Liu.

Speaking after the final deliberations, Beard said the panel had spent an entire day discussing the six shortlisted novels before reaching a unanimous decision to select Harrison as the winner.