Literature

Literature

Samantha Harvey’s ‘Orbital’ wins Booker Prize

13 November 2024 02:00 (UTC +04:00)

When Samantha Harvey started work on “Orbital,” a novel set aboard the International Space Station, she wrote 5,000 words then, suddenly, lost her nerve, APA reports citing New York Times.

“I thought, ‘Well, I have never been to space. I could never go to space,’” Harvey recalled in a recent BBC radio interview: “‘Who am I to do this?’”

She only returned to the novel during the pandemic, after realizing she should stop worrying about “trespassing in space,” she said. Years later, that decision has paid off. On Tuesday, “Orbital” won the Booker Prize, the prestigious literary award.

Edmund de Waal, an artist and the chair of this year’s panel of judges, called “Orbital” a “beautiful, miraculous novel” in a news conference before Tuesday’s announcement. The book centers on astronauts and cosmonauts who circle the earth, observing 16 sunrises and sunsets, and witnessing weather pass across fragile borders and time zones.