M. John Harrison Wins Booker Prize at 81 With AI-Tinged Apocalyptic Novel 'The End of Everything'

On Monday evening in London, M. John Harrison, 81, was named winner of the Booker Prize for "The End of Everything," a strange and darkly satirical novel set in a post-apocalyptic Britain. He is the oldest person ever to take the award, which carries £50,000 (about $67,000) and the lift in sales and visibility that usually follows.

It was also his first time on the shortlist, something critics have called long overdue. Born in Rugby in 1945, Harrison has spent decades as a fixture of British science fiction, best known for the Viriconium saga, published between 1971 and 1984, and for "Light" (2002), the first volume of the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy. Both are regarded as major works of the genre, yet he remained little known beyond enthusiasts. When the shortlist was announced, The Telegraph wrote: "Finally, he's getting his due."

He beat five other writers: Marlon James, Douglas Stuart, Elizabeth Strout, Luke Kennard and Rebecca Perry. Their books ranged from a queer epic set in 1980s Kingston to a campus satire in present-day London. The judges had worked through 163 entries over a year-long process to reach those six.

Harrison's 13th novel runs just 198 pages. It follows Phillip Tennent, a beachcomber, and his free-spirited aunt Marnie, who has dementia. They live on a windswept stretch of the English coast in the near future, where mysterious objects called the iGhetti have arrived. An unnamed catastrophe has plunged the world into murk, and the European continent seems to have vanished. The iGhetti can imitate humans, which evokes encounters with artificial intelligence.

In dream-like episodes, the book alludes to Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and technology's intrusion into daily life. As is typical of Harrison's work, described as genre-bending and singular, atmosphere counts for more than plot, and his elliptical, poetic style deepens the sense of gradual collapse.

Mary Beard, chair of the judges, told a press conference the novel came out ahead for both its "extraordinary expert writing" and its "huge ambition." She said one main point of the book is that if or when such an apocalypse comes, it will be incomprehensible. In a statement she called it "the politics of now seen through the lens of the future." Of the artefact Phillip holds, she noted it is unclear how sentient it is, or what it is.

Harrison said current affairs supplied the themes and the satire. He asked what happens when all our expectations and explanations of the world become an ongoing disaster, yet we still have to make a life. He has previously said the 2008 financial crisis inspired him, and that he wanted to write about the "failure of explanation in society."

AI sat in the judges' minds throughout the year. Beard said concerns about it were "pretty high on this book." Other judges had spoken of wanting a shortlist of distinctly human books that AI could not replicate. In an earlier AFP interview, Beard said the panel will inevitably have to consider AI's role in publishing and writing in coming years: "You can't bury your head in the sand about that."

Last year's winner was British-Hungarian author David Szalay, for "Flesh." Whether and how the prize addresses AI in future rounds is the question Beard has said will arrive.