English author Samantha Harvey has one the 2024 Booker Prize award with her novel Orbital.
The first book set in space to win the award, Harvey is is also the first woman to win the Booker Prize since 2019.
Following a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station across a 24 hour period while they orbit Earth, her novel Orbital is the biggest selling book on the shortlist in the UK. It has outsold the past three Booker Prize winners combined, and is the second-shortest book to win at just 136 pages long.
Meanwhile, this year’s shortlisted nominees also include Anne Michaels and previous nominee Percival Everett, whose 2001 novel was recently adapted into the Oscar nominated film American Fiction. The longlist featured works from Colin Barrett, Rita Bullwinkel and Hisham Matar.
With the winner now having been announced, here are all of the books nominated for the 2024 Booker Prize.
1. WINNER: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
The winner of the 2024 Booker Prize comes from previous nominee, British author Samantha Harvey. Her novel Orbital follows six astronauts in the International Space Station as they watch over Earth and contemplate the fragility of human life. Booker Prize judges say readers will admire how "superbly crafted and lyrically stunning" the novel is. | Ula Soltys
2. SHORTLIST: James by Percival Everett
A reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, James is the latest work from previous Booker Prize nominee Percival Everett which follows an enslaved man who decides to hide on a nearby island after overhearing that he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and daughter forever. Judges say that the novel's unique narrative make it feel particularly fresh, despite it initially presenting itself as a retelling of a classic. | Rich Barrr Photo: Collage image with Percival Everett on the left and on the right the cover of his Booker Prize shortlisted work James
3. SHORTLIST: Held by Anne Michaels
In a narrative that spans four generations, Held is an examination of history by author and poet Anne Michaels. Her Booker Prize shortlisted third novel is a compassionate exploration of generational trauma. Judges say that Held stands out as one of few books which "can achieve a pitch of poetic intensity sustained across a whole novel". | Marzena Pogorzaly
4. SHORTLIST: Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
American writer Rachel Kushner tells the story of an undercover agent caught between the past and the future in Creation Lake. Another previous Booker nominee, this work is part spy novel, part treatise on human history making the 2024 Booker Prize shortlist. Judges praise Kushner's "audaciously confident" narrative voice as well as her "juicy" prose, "jaunty" narrator and "lush" worldbuilding. | Chloe Aftel