Space travel novel wins 2024 Booker Prize

British author Samantha Harvey's novel "Orbital" about astronauts on the International Space Station won the 2024 Booker Prize.

On the morning of November 13 ( Hanoi time), the jury announced that Samantha Harvey received the prize worth 50,000 pounds (more than 1.5 billion VND). According to The Guardian reported that Harvey is the first woman to win the prize in five years, since Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo won the 2019 Booker. When her name was announced, the author cried, hugging friends and colleagues before going on stage to accept the award.

Author Samantha Harvey at the 2024 Booker Prize ceremony. Photo: AP

Judge Edmund de Waal commented: Orbital (pandemic: Orbit ) - about the journey of six astronauts from five countries on the International Space Station - was honored with a high consensus. Previously in the nomination round, the jury said that "the novel brings an unprecedented perspective in literature".

"As judges, we were determined to find a book that moved us, Orbital is a work that meets that condition. With poetic and incisive language, Harvey makes the world seem new to us," said Edmund de Waal.

In her speech, Harvey dedicated her win to those who "preserve the Earth's habitat, the dignity of humans and all other living beings, and those who call for and act for peace ." When asked what she would spend the prize money on, Harvey said she needed a new bicycle and wanted to visit Japan.

With 136 pages, Orbital is the second shortest book to win the Booker Prize in history, four pages longer than Offshore Penelope Fitzgerald - won the prize in 1979. The novel, first published in November 2023, is the best-selling work on the Booker Prize shortlist, with 29,000 copies sold in the UK this year. The plot follows the characters through a day with 16 sunrises and sunsets, is "a subtle meditation on the Earth, beauty and human desire", according to Alexandra Harris in the review of the newspaper Guardian .

Harvey said she wanted to give up on writing the novel because she thought no one would want to hear a story about space from a woman writer, when she had never been there. "I lost my nerve, I thought, I don't have the authority to write this book," the author said. She then showed the manuscript to astronaut Tim Peake, who approved it. Peak also asked her how she got information about space travel.

Cover of the book "Orbital". Photo: Vintage Digital

Samantha Harvey, 49, is a British novelist. She studied philosophy at the University of York and the University of Sheffield (UK), completed a Master's course in creative writing at Bath Spa University in 2005, and obtained a PhD in creative writing. The author has appeared on the list final won the 2009 British Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize) for her debut work. The Wilderness - written from the perspective of a 60-year-old man fighting Alzheimer's disease.

In 2009, Harvey was longlisted for the Booker Prize for The Wilderness . Orbital is her fifth work, after All Is Song , Dear Thief and The Western Wind . She also published a memoir about insomnia called The Shapeless Unease in 2020.

Many readers agreed and congratulated Samantha Harvey on her victory. On the other hand, some people thought that the author Percival Everett of the book James deserves to win the prize. On Instagram , some wrote: "Wrong decision. Percival is the winner", " James would be a better choice".

Prior to the event, the work - known as a "rewritten version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - predicted by experts to win the Booker. James set in the 19th-century American South, like the original. If Huckleberry Finn is the focus of Mark Twain's novel, the protagonist of Percival Everett's story is James. The book sold 15,306 copies in less than a year.

The jury commented: "Percival Everett's work not only meets all expectations but also affirms his masterful storytelling style. Although the book is based on the plot of a literary classic, contemporary readers fully understand and resonate with the universal characters, freedom and justice presented in the book."

Booker Established in 1968, formerly known as the Booker - McConnell or The Man Booker, is the most prestigious literary prize in the English-speaking world. Last year's prize went to the novel Prophet Song by Irish writer Paul Lynch. Alongside De Waal, this year's judging panel includes novelists Sara Collins, Yiyun Li, literary editor Justine Jordan and musician Nitin Sawhney.

Since 2014, the organizers have allowed novels written in English and published in the UK by foreign writers to compete. Previously, only writers from the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland were allowed to participate. In addition, the organizers have established the International Booker Prize, which honors international works translated into English and published in the US, UK or Ireland. The winner of the 2024 Booker will be selected from 156 books published between October 1, 2023 and September 30 this year.

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