Samantha Harvey's novel Orbital, earned the 2024 Booker Prize. The book portrays six astronauts grappling with life in the isolation of space over the course of one day. Harvey described the novel as "space pastoral - a kind of nature writing about the beauty of space." It is the first Booker Prize-winning book set in space.
According to the Booker Prize website, "Her prose, both poetic and urgent, explores themes of interconnection, fragility, and resilience, making Orbital a powerful commentary on our planet and its future."
Each year the Booker Prize is awarded to, what is in the opinion of the judges, the best work of fiction written in English and published in the UK and Ireland.
Since its publication in late 2023, Orbital has become a bestseller, achieving significant success. Harvey is the first woman to win the Booker Prize since 2019. It is her fifth novel and sixth book. In Ms.Harvey's acceptance speech she said, "I would like to dedicate this prize to everybody who speaks for and not against the Earth."
You can find a copy of Orbital in the Irene duPont Library as well as on a library Kindle.