The Booker Prize has been in existence since 1969. The hope was that newly published work would become as central to the English speaking world as the winners of the Prix Goncourt are to that of France.
Publishers Graham C Greene and Tom Maschler came up with the original idea and then of course needed a financial backer. As so often happens, this came from a strange and unrelated place, through a friend of a friend. A conglomerate in Guyana called Booker McConnell, at the time a large wholesale food distributor, was interested in diversifying into literary estates and this seemed to them a useful connection.
Looking a little deeper, the colonial history of this company in South America is decidedly unsavoury as they were undoubtedly involved in slavery on sugar plantations. Although this was obviously long gone by the time they began to back the Booker Prize, there are many memories of the financiers being called the ‘sugar daddies,’ alluding to their past.
So, this year the prestigious literary prize went to Samantha Harvey for her book: ‘Orbital.’ The story takes place over 24 hours on the International Space Station as six fictional astronauts circle the Earth. This is a slim volume, only 136 pages and a novel that slides over the boundaries of various genres: literary fiction, sci-fi and philosophical drama. The author started to write in 2010 and then stopped, being overtaken by the inadequacy that can afflict many, i.e. how can I know what it is like in space? I have never been there and I will never go. They then remember the power of the imagination and that they are aiming to write fiction. After some confidence boosting research, Samantha Harvey finished the book during Covid lockdowns.
This would not normally be the sort of offering that would immediately attract me but as I was asked: ‘would you like the new Booker Prize winner?’ by my husband, as his finger was poised over the button, inevitably I was going to say yes please. Blackwells speedily delivered it through my letterbox.
And I’m glad! This is not someone I had heard of before but I was quickly delighting in Samantha Harvey’s use of language. I suspect I have written before in these columns that I love poetic prose and it was a lovely surprise to find this book full of such treasure. Take for instance: ‘ The Milky Way is a smoking trail of gunpowder shot through a satin sky,’ or ‘ Over its right shoulder the planet whispers morning – a slender molten breach of light.’ ‘ The earth is the face of an exulted lover; they watch it sleep and wake and become lost in its habits. Eyes filled with sights that are difficult to tell.’ As I am in danger of drowning here in a syrup of metaphorical indulgence, I will stop … but I do love it.
And so to the book, short on traditional plot but full of happenings.
What happens to time when you are orbiting the planet and a day lasting 24 hours no longer makes any sense? The rules and patterns that we live by on Earth are irrelevant when you are living in a small group of people who are essentially strangers to each other and yet in closer contact that they might usually choose. The mother of one astronaut dies unexpectedly. Her daughter cannot quickly go home. Does she feel disassociated from what her Earth bound family are going through? Maybe she knows her space tasks are for the greater good and uses this to cope with her individual loss. Reality says that those in the space ship can communicate with Earth but do they really? The astronauts find it difficult to relate their space experiences to those who are bound to solid ground. How to make sense or explain clearly?
This is an unusual book and I think a courageous Booker choice.
I enjoyed it but find I won’t be in a hurry to find more by Samantha Harvey. She received a prize of £50,000 and when asked how she would spend it, she said she would buy a new bike! I liked her answer; very earth bound! Anyway, her book has leapt straight to the top of the bestseller lists, which is apparently called ‘the Booker bounce.’I hope it fulfils the aim of the competition: to stimulate discussion of contemporary fiction.
I had fun looking at the backlist of Booker winners. Had I read many of them I wondered. Well, more than I would have thought actually, definitely the two writers who are double winners of this prize: Margaret Atwood and of course Hilary Mantel. Then there is Moon Tiger by one of my favourite authors: Penelope Lively, Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald and one of which I have written recently: Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner. Shuggie Bain, a debut by Douglas Stuart was another but I didn’t finish it. I could sense it was brilliant but it was also too grim, sad and totally shocking for me to keep turning the pages.
Thank you for talking books with me; happy 2025 to you all … and thank you for getting in touch.