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journalism → support → readers
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we → purchase → commission
The Booker Prize 2026 has gone to the British author M. John Harrison for his novel The End of Everything.
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Prize → go → Everything
The 81-year-old is the oldest to win the prize – the pinnacle of a six-decade-long writing career.
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old → win → career
A dystopian satire that takes place in a coastal English town after societal collapse, the author beat past winners Marlon James and Douglas Stuart to the top literary honour.
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author → take → honour
Chair of the judges, Mary Beard, described The End of Everything as a “book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism.”
Established in 1969, the Booker Prize is the world’s most significant award for a single work of fiction, where the winning authors receive £50,000.
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authors → describe → 50,000
The only requirements are that the book must be a work of long-form fiction originally written in English (the author can be of any nationality) and published in the UK or Ireland between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026.
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author → write → October
Past winners of the prestigious literary prize have included Hilary Mantel for Wolf Hall, Salman Rushdie for Midnight’s Children, and Arundhati Roy for The God of Small Things.
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winners → include → Things
At the ceremony in Old Billingsgate, Harrison’s trophy was presented by the author David Szalay, who won last year’s prize for his novel Flesh.
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who → present → novel
The winning novel was selected by a judging panel that included poet Raymond Antrobus, musician Jarvis Cocker, journalist Rebecca Loi, and Booker-shortlisted novelist Patricia Lockwood.
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that → win → Antrobus
From dystopian fiction and contemporary realism to campus drama and historical fiction, the shortlist recognised authors exploring humour, heartbreak and satire.
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shortlist → recognise → humour
“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,” Beard said.
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Beard → spend → Harrison
She described Harrison’s genre-defying book as “the politics of now seen through the lens of the future.”
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She → describe → future
Here’s where to pick up the Booker Prize 2026 winning novel, along with the shortlisted books.
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pick → ’ → books
“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),” Beard said.
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Beard → live → something
“Social norms have been eroded, law and order have fallen into the hands of vigilantes, and you may well have a crashed plane lodged in your garden.
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plane → erode → garden
People try to muddle through nonetheless, even making a show of business as usual (children’s parties and a morning coffee at a seaside café).
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People → try → café
“Some try desperately to make sense of what has happened.
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what → try → sense
But one main point of the book is that if, or when, such an apocalypse comes it will be incomprehensible.
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it → come → book
And the old rules won’t matter either.
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rules → matter → ?
Phillip is landed with an ‘item’ he found on the beach, a blob of jelly which quickly grows, develops speech and starts to tell his human minders what to do.
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which → land → what
This is the politics of now seen through the lens of the future.
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This → see → future
Booker Prize 2026 shortlist
'John of John' by Douglas Stuart, published by Picador
Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize in 2020 with Shuggie Bain, but John of John is arguably the Scottish author’s best yet.
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John → publish → John
Stuart explores his signature themes of masculinity, working-class Scottish life and family relationships; this time on the Isle of Harris.
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Stuart → explore → Harris
The novel begins with 22-year-old art graduate John-Callum returning home to the isolated fishing, weaving and crofting community.
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Callum → begin → community
Read More
With his dyed red hair, ‘strange clothes’ and artistic leanings, Cal is an affront to his father John, a devout Protestant, sheep farmer and a deacon in the Presbyterian church.
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Cal → read → church
John is reluctantly living with his sharp-tongued Glaswegian mother-in-law, Ella (a delightful character), and is deeply troubled by his son’s free expression.
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John → live → expression
Little does Callum know, his father is hiding a secret of his own.
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father → know → own
An intimate portrait of a close-knit community in the rugged Outer Hebrides, John of John explores the tension between duty and religion, and desire and love.
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John → knit → duty
'The Disappearers' by Marlon James, published by Hamish Hamilton
This is a sucker-punch of a novel.
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This → publish → novel
An epic of more than 600 pages, it took me longer to get through than my usual reading pace.
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it → take → pace
The topic is heavy, and the story is heartbreaking – I picked it up between other books for relief.
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I → pick → relief
But oh, am I happy I finished it – and its characters won’t leave readers easily.
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characters → finish → readers
The Disappearers returns to the same real-world setting of unstable 1980’s Jamaica, as reimagined in James’ previous Booker Prize-winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings.
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Disappearers → return → Killings
The book focuses on eight gay men targeted in a brutal mob attack during a play rehearsal in late eighties Kingston.
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book → focus → Kingston
Over two decades, it traces the victims as one seeks revenge, others to forget and some to entirely disappear.
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some → trace → revenge
The novel is as graphic about violence – the attack itself is narrated by the attackers, giving the reader a warped sense of the event – as it is about sex.
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it → narrate → sex
James paints a profoundly disturbing portrait of Jamaica in this era, where sexuality could be a death sentence, and disappearing could be salvation.
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disappearing → paint → era
The masterful writing picks up different narratives, from one character's experience as a black, gay student at a British university in the 1950’s to a young man’s disownment from his family.
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writing → pick → family
'The Things We Never Say' by Elizabeth Strout, published by Viking
The American author Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, The Things We Never Say, introduces us to a new character in the esteemed author's Massachusetts multiverse.
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We → say → multiverse
…and 15 more, not listed.
The Aporia
