Out of six shortlisted books, Samantha Harvey’s Orbital emerged as the 2024 Booker Prize Winner.

This groundbreaking  2024 Booker Prize Winner, Orbital,  follows the lives of six astronauts aboard the International Space Station over a single day, exploring the interplay between their mundane routines and the profound experience of observing Earth from space.

Judges have praised Harvey’s Orbital for its lyrical prose and imaginative scope. Samantha equally said in her acceptance speech:

“We are, as Carl Sagan says in his book Cosmos, ‘the local embodiment of a consciousness grown to self-awareness. We are star-stuff pondering the stars.’ I would add that we are also Earth-stuff pondering the Earth, and I think my novel is an exercise in that pondering. To look at the Earth from space is a bit like a child looking into a mirror and realizing for the first time that the person in the mirror is herself. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves, and what we do to life on Earth, human and otherwise, we do to ourselves.”

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Judges recognize the novel’s concise yet expansive storytelling, achieving extraordinary impact in under 136 pages. This brevity and also its profound thematic depth set Orbital apart as a remarkable literary achievement. Orbital’s recognition underscores its literary excellence and timely exploration of human fragility and resilience, themes that resonate deeply in today’s global context. The winner was chosen from 156 books published between 1 October 2023 and 30 September 2024. 

According to an article by The Guardian, Samantha Harvey’s book has entered the UK Bestselling list because of the win. This also makes it the first Booker novel to hit number one in the week of its win.