Orbital,” the fifth novel by Samantha Harvey, won the 2024 Booker Prize for Fiction on Tuesday. The novel follows astronauts over the course of 24 hours on a space station. The prize comes with a cash award of 50,

The 2024 Booker Prize winner will be revealed on Tuesday evening. Paul Murray’s The Bee Sting and the eventual winner Prophet Song by Paul Lynch were on last year’s shortlist, ensuring a lot of Irish interest. While there is no Irish writer on this year’s shortlist, there is still a lot to savour.

Before Tuesday night, the author Samantha Harvey had got used to thinking of herself as a bit of an underdog. “It’s not out of self-pity, but I definitely saw myself as being on the periphery,” she says.