English writer Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize 2024 for her novel "Orbital", according to the prizeʼs official website.
The jury, chaired by artist and writer Edmund de Waal, unanimously chose the novel as the winner.
Harvey receives £50 000 and a prize presented to her by last yearʼs Booker Prize winner, Paul Lynch.
In his novel, Harvey describes a day in the life of six astronauts aboard the International Space Station, who witness 16 sunrises and as many sunsets. They are there to perform vital work, but gradually they begin to wonder: what is life without Earth and what is Earth without man?
According to reviewers, the book "invites the reader to observe the magnificence of the Earth while reflecting on the individual and collective value of each human life."
Jury chairman Edmund de Waal called Orbital "a book about a wounded world", adding that the juryʼs "unanimity on Orbital recognizes its beauty and ambition".
At 136 pages, the novel was the second shortest book ever to win the Booker Prize. It is four pages longer than Penelope Fitzgeraldʼs Offshore, which won in 1979. Reviewers called Harveyʼs book "compact yet beautifully packed."
In addition, Orbital was the best-selling shortlisted book in the UK. In terms of the number of copies sold, the novel surpassed the previous three winners of the Booker Prize combined. In addition, its author Harvey became the first woman to receive the award since 2019.
- The Booker Prize is the most prestigious literary award, which has been awarded since 1969. During the entire history of the award, only five of its laureates later received the Nobel Prize for Literature. The amount of the award is £50 000.
- Irish writer Paul Lynch won the 2023 Booker Prize for his novel Prophet Song. Lynchʼs novel chronicles the struggle of a mother of four to save her family as Ireland descends into totalitarianism.
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