Samantha Harvey, the sole British author on this year’s shortlist, has claimed the 2024 Booker Prize—widely regarded as the UK’s top literary accolade—for her novel Orbital.
The award was presented on Tuesday, November 12, as reported by The Guardian.
The winning novel, Orbital, tells the story of six fictional astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
According to the chair of the judging panel, artist and writer Edmund de Waal, the judges reached a unanimous decision, noting that *Orbital* captures a “beauty and ambition” that highlights Harvey’s “extraordinary focus on the precious and fragile world we inhabit.”
Set over a single day, *Orbital* follows its characters as they witness 16 sunrises and sunsets, weaving a narrative that contemplates Earth’s beauty and humanity’s dreams.
The book, which follows its characters over the course of a day as they experience 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets, is a “finely crafted meditation on the Earth, beauty and human aspiration”, wrote Alexandra Harris in her Guardian review.
Published last November, the novel has sold 29,000 copies in the UK this year and was the highest-selling title on the shortlist ahead of the winner announcement.
With only 136 pages, *Orbital* is one of the shortest novels to ever win the Booker Prize, just surpassing *Offshore* by Penelope Fitzgerald, which won in 1979.
When asked if this choice reflects a preference for shorter works, De Waal emphasized that the book’s length was ideal for its content, saying it was “the right length of book for what it’s trying to achieve.”
This is not Harvey’s first Booker recognition; her debut novel *The Wilderness* was longlisted in 2009. *Orbital* is her fifth novel, joining her other works, *All Is Song*, *Dear Thief*, and *The Western Wind*, along with her memoir on insomnia, *The Shapeless Unease*, published in 2020.
The shortlist this year also included *Creation Lake* by Rachel Kushner, *Held* by Anne Michaels, *The Safekeep* by Yael van der Wouden, and *Stone Yard Devotional* by Charlotte Wood. Joining De Waal on the judging panel were novelist Sara Collins, author Yiyun Li, *Guardian* fiction editor Justine Jordan, and musician Nitin Sawhney.
The judging panel sought a work that was “emotionally moving, resonant, and compelling,” said De Waal. “We wanted a book that spoke to us in an unforgettable way.”
Sara Collins, a fellow judge, noted the timeliness of *Orbital*, describing it as “a book we need now.” She praised Harvey’s lyrical style, which, through the perspective of six astronauts orbiting Earth, explores the fragility of borders and the passage of time.
This year’s Booker Prize winner was selected from 156 books published between October 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024. The prize now accepts works written originally in English by authors of any nationality, a rule change from 2014 that previously limited eligibility to writers from the Commonwealth, Ireland, and Zimbabwe.
The previous year’s award went to Irish author Paul Lynch for his novel *Prophet Song*. Recent winners also include Shehan Karunatilaka, Damon Galgut, and Douglas Stuart. The last female winner was in 2019 when Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood shared the prize.
