British author Samantha Harvey has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Orbital, marking the first time a space-themed book has received this prestigious award.
The novel, which explores the world from the perspective of astronauts aboard the International Space Station, has captivated readers, becoming the best-selling book on this year’s shortlist in the UK and surpassing the combined sales of the previous three Booker winners before her victory.
Harvey, the first woman to win the Booker Prize since 2019, was awarded £50,000 at a ceremony held at London’s Old Billingsgate.
In her acceptance speech, she dedicated her win to those who advocate for peace and protect the Earth.
Reflecting on her own self-doubt during the writing process, she admitted, “Why would anybody want to hear from a woman at her desk in Wiltshire writing about space when people have actually been there?”
Despite her initial uncertainty, the book’s reception has been overwhelmingly positive.
Harvey, in a state of “complete shock and very overwhelmed,” expressed that the award would be life-changing.
She plans to use part of the prize money for a much-needed new bike.
Orbital was praised by Edmund de Waal, chair of the Booker judges, as a “book about a wounded world,” highlighting its “beauty and ambition” and Harvey’s “language of lyricism.”
She describes the novel as a “space pastoral”—a fusion of nature writing and the quiet beauty of space.
Set over 24 hours in the lives of six astronauts, the novel captures the astronauts’ experience as they witness 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets while orbiting Earth, their vantage point revealing a silent, stunning view of glaciers, deserts, mountains, and oceans.
At just 136 pages, Orbital is one of the shortest books to win the Booker Prize, second only to Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore, which won in 1979 with 132 pages.
Harvey previously discussed her creative process, explaining that she wrote the book during the pandemic lockdowns, finding parallels between her characters’ isolation in space and the experience of people confined to their homes.
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