English author Michael John Harrison (M. John Harrison) has won this year’s Booker Prize. He is the oldest winner in the history of Britain’s most important literary award. The jury honored him for his novel “The End of Everything.”
“It is a story about catastrophe and apocalypse. And about how, when you are living through them, it is impossible to understand what is happening. But there are various notes of optimism in it. There are brief visions of the future, so there is hope in it,” jury chair Mary Beard said Monday evening, explaining the panel’s decision at a ceremony in London’s City.
“The End of Everything” is a dystopian science fiction novel set in Britain in the near future. After a mysterious catastrophe and the collapse of civilization, the protagonist makes a living fishing various artifacts out of the waters of the English Channel. One day, off the coast of Kent, he pulls up a mysterious creature that can change shape.
The jury had said earlier that the book can be read in many ways: as a thriller, a crime novel, a satire, a dystopia, a road novel, and even a work of realist fiction.
“Prizes like this one, though really there are no other prizes that match the Booker, are extremely important in the world of the industrialization of literature. So it is an honor to be among such distinguished figures,” the winner said. Harrison won the Booker at age 81. The previous record holder, Margaret Atwood, was 79 when she received the award in 2019.
Born in 1945, Harrison is associated primarily with science fiction. He is one of the representatives of the so-called British New Wave of science fiction, alongside J.G. Ballard and Brian Aldiss. In the late 1960s he wrote for the influential magazine “New Worlds.” His novels include “Climbers” and “Nova Swing,” and he has also reviewed books in the literary supplements of the Guardian, the New York Times and the Daily Telegraph.
This year’s jury was chaired by Mary Beard, a well-known historian, author and documentary filmmaker. The five jurors also included essayist Patricia Lockwood, author of the book “No One Is Talking About This,” and Jarvis Cocker, the leader of the band Pulp.
The list of submissions initially included 163 titles. At the end of July, the jurors narrowed it to 13 books, and in September a shortlist of six titles was drawn up; their authors come from England, Jamaica, Scotland and the U.S. The other nominees were Douglas Stuart, Elizabeth Strout, Marlon James, Luke Kennard and Rebecca Perry.
The Booker Prize is one of the most important literary awards for prose written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner receives £50,000.
Last year’s winner was David Szalay, author of the novel “Flesh,” which is set in Hungary and London. Earlier winners include Salman Rushdie for “Midnight’s Children” (1981), Kazuo Ishiguro for “The Remains of the Day” (1989), Arundhati Roy for “The God of Small Things” (1997), Ian McEwan for “Amsterdam” (1998), Margaret Atwood for “The Blind Assassin” (2000) and Hilary Mantel for “Wolf Hall” (2009). The International Booker Prize is a separate award, given for prose translated into English.
Source: PAP
