British author Samantha Harvey wins Booker with space story

British Author Samantha Harvey Wins 2024 Booker Prize with Groundbreaking Space Novel

Samantha Harvey, a celebrated British author, has won the 2024 Booker Prize for her novel Orbital, marking the first time a book set in space has claimed this prestigious award. Orbital offers readers a unique perspective on Earth, following a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Notably, it has become the highest-selling book on the UK shortlist, surpassing the combined sales of the past three Booker winners. Harvey, the first female winner since 2019, received the award at a ceremony held at London’s Old Billingsgate, along with the £50,000 prize. In her acceptance speech, she dedicated the award to “all the people who speak for and not against the Earth and work for and not against peace.” Reflecting on the novel's journey, she shared her initial doubts: “Why would anybody want to hear from a woman at her desk in Wiltshire writing about space when people have actually been there? I lost my nerve with it and thought I didn’t have the authority to write it After her win, Harvey told BBC News she was “in complete shock and very overwhelmed,” adding that the prize money would go toward purchasing a new bike.

A ‘Space Pastoral’ for a Wounded World Edmund de Waal, chair of the Booker Prize judges, described Orbital as “a book about a wounded world,” commending its “beauty and ambition” and the “language of lyricism” in Harvey’s writing. Harvey herself described the novel as a “space pastoral” and likened it to nature writing but focused on the cosmos. The 136-page novel, Harvey’s fifth, unfolds over a single day in the lives of six astronauts and cosmonauts, who experience 16 sunrises and sunsets while observing the Earth’s landscapes from afar. Orbital is the second-shortest book to win the Booker Prize, following Penelope Fitzgerald’s Offshore (1979) at 132 pages. Harvey noted that she began writing the novel during lockdown, finding parallels between the astronauts’ confinement and the global experience of isolation. Harvey first appeared on the Booker Prize longlist in 2009 with her debut novel, The Wilderness. A Historic Year for Women on the Booker Shortlist This year’s Booker shortlist was notable for its female representation, with five women among the six finalists—the highest proportion in the award’s 55-year history. Alongside Orbital, the other shortlisted novels were: James by Percival Everett (US) Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (US) Held by Anne Michaels (Canada) The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Netherlands) Stone Yard Devotion by Charlotte Wood (Australia) The Booker Prize, open to English-language fiction from authors worldwide published in the UK or Ireland, has previously been awarded to literary icons such as Margaret Atwood, Hilary Mantel, Bernardine Evaristo, and Salman Rushdie. #OrbitalBook #SongJaeRim #FrankAuerbach #SexiestManAlive2024 #BridgetJones #SkaiJackson #SleepToken #MikeTysonVsJakePaul #VickyMcClure #BandAid #DeadpoolAndWolverine #AlienEarth #EllaPurnell #OliviaRodrigo #ZendayaAndRobertPattinson