Author M. John Harrison Has Become The Oldest Booker Prize Winner Ever, Here’s What Won Him The Prize And The Other Books On The Shortlist
by Benjamin Dzialdowski · BuzzFeedThe Booker Prize has been running for 57 years, with the inaugural prize going to P.H. Newby for Something to Answer in 1969. In all that time, no bonafide science fiction novel had ever one the prestigious award, until now.
Last night at a ceremony in London, author M. John Harrison became the first to win the Booker Prize with a science fiction novel, and at the age of 81 also became the competition's oldest ever winner. The seasoned author took home the £50,000 prize money along with the trophy for his post-apocalyptic novel The End of Everything.
Chair of the judges, Mary Beard, relayed that the decision was a unanimous one, saying: “It’s a book that turns you upside down, raises a wry smile – and surprisingly, given the subject matter, leaves you with a twinge of optimism."
Chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, Gaby Wood, described Harrison's win as "historic", saying that this was the "first Booker winner to have emerged from the bona fide SF world”.
The End of Everything is set on the South-East England's Kent coastline years after a catastrophe has shifted the world as we know it. We follow Philip Tennent, a beach comber getting by through his scavenging of peculiar artifacts that wash up from the sea. When one particular item emerges from the sea, it disrupts Philip’s entire world.
As chair of the Judges Mary Beard put it, “One main point of the book is that if, or when, such an apocalypse comes it will be incomprehensible. And the old rules won’t matter either … This is the politics of now seen through the lens of the future.”
While not necessarily a 'mainstream' author, M John Harrison is a legend in the sci-fi space, and his fans were surprised and overjoyed to see him take home the prize.
"M. John Harrison has to be one of the most snubbed authors of all time. Glad to see him getting some recognition the last few years."
"Can't believe one of my favourite authors finally did it. He's been so snubbed throughout his career that I didn't think the Booker was ever going to go for him. If anyone enjoyed The End of Everything but doesn't know where to start, I'd say his wonderful Viriconium novels, and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy are good places to start."
The shortlist for the final included:
The Disappearers by Marlon James
This "unflinching exploration of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s" is the story of eight gay men in Kingston, Jamaica who begin rehearsals for a play. After the men are brutally attacked by a mob, the healing processes makes them confront the rage, anger, and violence in their own painful way.
Black Bag by Luke Kennard
Described as an "investigation into the crisis of masculinity and an off-kilter love story," Black Bag follows university professor Dr Blend's psychological experiment which involves a broke and out-if-work actor getting a role to be zipped into a black bag and placed at the back of the lecture hall over a series of lectures.
May We Feed the King by Rebecca Perry
May We Feed the King, called "a playful, stirring meditation on history and storytelling", follows a curator who occupies her time by bringing historic buildings to life with her adornments. When dressing the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, however, she becomes transfixed by the reign of a nearly-forgotten King.
The Things We Never Say by Elizabeth Strout
This novel about grief, connections, and friendship, follows Artie Dam, a 57-year-old teacher in a town on the Massachusetts coast. Artie's seemingly comfortable life, however, is masking his profound internal struggle that stems from his intense isolation, his angst, and family secrets that force him to come to terms with a new idea of himself.
John of John by Douglas Stuart
This devastating novel confronts "how the bonds of family life are torn by the weight of expectation." John-Calum Macleod, a down-on-his luck art school graduate returns home to the island of Harris to discover that nothing has particularly changed, other than himself. Frictions with his religious father increase as the wight of rural and religious judgement and repressed expression only increase.