The Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize

Yesterday, British writer Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for her novel Orbital. The meditative book follows six astronauts from different countries who are orbiting the earth for 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets. They complete everyday activities, like preparing dehydrated meals and exercising, while contemplating the cosmos.

Edmund de Waal, a writer and artist who was on this year’s Booker judging panel, said Orbital was a “miraculous novel,” and that it “makes our world strange and new for us.”

Harvey is the first British writer since 2020 to win the Booker prize, which was founded in 1969 and is open to writers of any nationality who write in English. Her novel was chosen out of 156 by authors from Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, and the U.S.

She will get £50,000 (or about $64,000) for her win, which she plans to spend on taxes, a new bike, and maybe even a trip to Japan.

Read more about Harvey’s win at AP News and on the Booker Prize website.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.