M. John Harrison’s THE END OF EVERYTHING Wins the 2026 Booker Prize!

We’re thrilled to share that M. John Harrison’s THE END OF EVERYTHING (Riverhead Books; Penguin Audio) has won the 2026 Booker Prize!

The British author was announced as this year’s winner at a ceremony held at Old Billingsgate in London, where he was honored with the £50,000 prize and a trophy presented by last year’s winner and PRH author,David Szalay. At 81, Harrison makes history as the oldest author to win the prestigious literary prize, following a remarkable writing career spanning 60 years.

THE END OF EVERYTHING is a satirical dystopian novel that follows a beachcomber and his pistol-toting aunt as they navigate life on a near-future Kent coast. Told through short, cinematic chapters, the novel challenges conventional storytelling and explores the limits of human understanding.

The winner was chosen by a judging panel chaired by classicist, writer, and broadcaster Mary Beard, alongside Raymond Antrobus, Jarvis Cocker, Rebecca Liu, and Patricia Lockwood. The judges considered 163 books before selecting the winner.

The announcement marks an exciting conclusion to this year’s Booker Prize honorees, including four Penguin Random House titles selected for the six-book shortlist.

Congratulations to M. John Harrison and the talented teams who helped bring this extraordinary book to readers! Learn more about this year’s winner and the 2026 Booker Prize here.

Our 2026 Booker Prize Winner

THE END OF EVERYTHING by M. John Harrison

Penguin Random House U.S.
Riverhead Books (Hardcover and Ebook)
Penguin Audio (Audiobook)

A haunting apocalyptic adventure, and a formidable exploration of what it means to be human in a shifting world, from “one of the very great writers alive today.” (China Miéville)

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, an entire continent 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.