Samantha Harvey holding her book Oribtal
Posted on by Giulia Serrelli

British author Samantha Harvey’s book Orbital has won The Booker Prize 2024 on Tuesday.

Orbital follows four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they observe a moving spectacle of the earth beneath them, while reflecting on the value of human life.

A panel of five judges unanimously voted for the book, describing it in the shortlisted presentations as offering a “vantage point we haven’t encountered in fiction before” one that is “infused with such awe and reverence that it reads like a love letter, an act of worship.”

At just 136 pages and covering only a 24-hours period, Orbital was the shortest book in length and timeframe among the six shortlisted ones.

The shortlist included James by Percival Everett, Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, Held by Anne Michaels, The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden and Stone Yard Devotion by Charlotte Wood.

Harvey was the only British author shortlisted.

Accepting the prize, handed to her by Booker Prize 2023 winner Paul Lynch for Prophet Song, Harvey aknowledged in her speech the “imperfections of the world we live in today.”

She also shared how her novel helps the reader reflect on “what we do to the earth we do to ourselves.”

It was the first time in the Booker Prize’s history that the shortlist included five women – and just one man. 

The last time a woman won the prize was in 2019, Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other shared the prize with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments. 

Throughout the 55 years of the Booker, women authors have won the prize 20 times.

Harvey is also the first British winner since Douglas Stuart in 2020. 

Since being published in November 2023, Orbital has sold around 29,000 copies – more than the last three winning Booker Prize books combined before they won.

Friends and avid book readers, Clemence and Anna, shared their excitement about reading the book at the dedicated ‘Evening with the Winner of the Booker Prize 2024’ event on November 14.

Clemence said she attends the event before reading the book since “hearing from the author brings a depth to the reading experience.”

Anna added that she reads the Booker Prize winning book every year describing it as “a right of passage.”

The Booker Prize, established in 1969, is the world’s leading literary award for the best work of fiction written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.