At just 136 pages long, British novelist Samantha Harvey’s slim book about a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts orbiting the earth beat a year’s worth of literary fiction to be crowned the winner of The 2024 Booker Prize.
Written during Covid lockdowns, the characters of Orbital exist together in the tight living quarters of the International Space Station, but their, and the novel’s, viewpoint is vast.
Together they witness 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets, spin through continents and seasons, and observe news from ‘home’ (earth) – whether that’s natural disasters or severe personal loss – while viewing the planet from a huge distance.
It’s a novel that joins an acclaimed body of work, including the novels The Wilderness, The Western Wind and the non-fiction work The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping that have seen Harvey shortlisted for The James Tait Black Award, The Women's Prize, The Guardian First Book Award and The Walter Scott Prize.
Don’t miss Kate De Goldi in discussion with this world-class writer working at the height of her powers.
