Samantha Harvey is an English writer and sculptor.
The novel describes one day in the life of six astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The winner of the 2024 Booker Prize was the novel Orbital by the English writer Samantha Harvey. This was announced on Tuesday, November 12, during the live broadcast of the award ceremony.
“Samantha Harvey wrote a novel inspired by the beauty of sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets. It is about everyone and no one, because six astronauts on the International Space Station fly above the Earth, watching the weather change, despite the fragility of borders and time zones. Her lyrical with language and poignancy, Harvey makes our world strange and new to us,” said jury chairman, artist and writer Edmund de Waal.
The winner is said to have been announced at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London. The novelist received 50,000 pounds and a trophy presented to her by last year’s winner, Paul Lynch.
According to the plot of the book, six astronauts – from the USA, Russia, Italy, Great Britain and Japan – are on duty at the International Space Station. They perform vital work there, but gradually begin to think: what is life without Earth? What is Earth without humanity?
Orbital is one of the few space novels to have been nominated for the Booker Prize in the last few years, and the first novel set in space to win.
At just 136 pages, the book is one of the shortest Booker Prize winners.
Booker Prize 2024 shortlist except for Harvey’s book:
Held, Anne Michaels
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
James, Percival Everett
The Safekeep, by Yael van der Wuden
Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
Samantha Harvey in the 2000s, she worked at the Herschel Astronomy Museum in Bath. She currently teaches a master’s course in creative writing and is the author of five novels.
In 2009, she was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize for her debut novel, The Wilderness, about an elderly architect suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Her writing has appeared in Granta Magazine, The Guardian, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Telegraph, and TIME Magazine.
Harvey is the only British author shortlisted for the 2024 Man Booker Prize.
The Booker Prize has been awarded annually to authors in Great Britain since 1969. It is considered one of the most prestigious awards in this field.
Usually more than 100 books are submitted for the award. First, the jury forms a long list of the award (about 20-25 names), and then leaves only six.
Earlier, the shortlist for the 2024 Booker Prize was announced, which included six books from 156 contenders.
It was reported that The New York Times presented a ranking of the best books that were written and published in the 21st century.
