Acclaimed writer Samantha Harvey was recently honored with the Booker Prize for her book Orbital to be published in 2024, which delves into a world based on the orbiter unit of the spacecraft’s International Space Station. Being set in a futuristic space environment, it is a story of a solitary Martian station of the same name that opens and transpires within 24 hours.; This fantastic piece was published by Harvey at the time of coronavirus restrictions and isolation, which became the feeling of the pandemic.
Unforgettable descriptions of everyday life on the ISS make readers understand the concept of the universe combined with darkness and confinement of the spacecraft. This is the thematic analysis of existence where through setting, Harvey uses this movie to portray various big questions and concerns that comes with humanity and existence of life in the universe . Auditory captures of Earth beauty as seen from the space have been well applauded for their poetic language. The Booker Prize jurors said her work was a `miraculous novel’ that rewrote the conditions of existence for readers.
Gaby Wood, the chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation noted that the work was highly pertinent especially given the year we are experiencing marked by climate change and geopolitical turmoil. For Orbital a powerful message on environmental conservation and unity of humankind densifies it as literary work, but also as the cultural product.
Since its release, Orbital has become so popular, that its sales have outstripped the previous three Booker Prize winners. This simple means that the book has helped the people in the society and many others hence showing the extent of its success. Harvey received a £50,000 prize and little quipped that she will use it to buy a bicycle.
Orbital will always be my testimony that literature helps us to navigate life and find hope in some of the darkest of human experiences. Samantha Harvey’s success keeps her with the most important literary figures of today, turning Orbital into a novel of the years.
