British author M. John Harrison has won the Booker Prize for his novel The End of Everything, making him the oldest winner in the prize's history at 81. The award also marks the first time a science fiction novel has taken the Booker, a milestone that literary circles have widely described as significant for a genre long kept at the edges of mainstream fiction.
The End of Everything is set in a dystopian future that follows a mysterious catastrophe. Its protagonist is a beachcomber working along the English coast in the aftermath of the disaster. While searching the shoreline, the character finds a mysterious object in the sea and carries it inland, a journey that drives the narrative forward.
Harrison is known as a genre-defying writer whose earlier works in science fiction and related forms are widely seen as groundwork for this recognition. Critics and readers have long admired his willingness to move between categories, and the win is being viewed as a reflection of how far speculative fiction has moved toward the centre of serious literary attention.
Reports on the win have appeared in the Times of India, Deadline and the Evening Standard. The details of the prize year and the ceremony have not been confirmed in the available reporting, and the wider significance of the award for future science fiction nominees and winners will become clearer as the literary calendar moves forward.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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