Samantha Harvey Wins 2024 Booker Prize for Novel ‘Orbital’

English author Samantha Harvey has been awarded the prestigious Booker Prize for 2024 for her novel, ‘Orbital‘. The book, which is set on the International Space Station, tells the story of a team of six astronauts from different countries, including America, Japan, the UK, Italy, and Russia. Harvey’s win was announced by the chair of the Booker Prize judges, Edmund de Waal, at a ceremony in London on Tuesday night, UK time.

‘Orbital’, a novel of just 144 pages, was praised by the judges for its unique perspective and emotional depth. De Waal described the novel as “a book about a wounded world” and noted that it “provides a vantage point we haven’t encountered in fiction before” and is “infused with such awe and reverence that it reads like a love letter”. The judges unanimously chose ‘Orbital’ for its “beauty and ambition” and its “capaciousness and resonance”[1].

Harvey, who was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2009 for her debut novel ‘The Wilderness’, has a long-standing fascination with space. As a teenager, she would collect quotes from astronauts, and during the lockdown, she began working seriously on ‘Orbital’, inspired by footage of the Earth from space. She aimed to write a “space pastoral” rather than a sci-fi novel, focusing on the realistic experiences of the astronauts and the intersection of their work with their personal lives.

The 2024 Booker Prize shortlist was notable for featuring five out of six novels written by women. Harvey’s win marks her as the first woman to win the prize since 2019, when Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo shared the award, and the first British winner since 2020, when the prize went to Scottish writer Douglas Stuart.