Last night it was announced that the winner of the Booker Prize was Samantha Harvey for her book 'Orbital' which follows the lives of 6 astronauts on the International Space Station as they orbit the Earth.
It's been described as a book about space but it's more of a book about Earth and human connections. The descriptions of the landscape are wonderful, and in some of the interviews I read when I posted about the book on my blogs a month or so ago, she describes how she watched the livestream while writing the book. I was hoping that she would win.
BBC News coverage here.
Chair of the judges, Edmund de Waal, described Orbital as a "book about a wounded world".
He said the judges all recognised its "beauty and ambition" and praised her "language of lyricism".
Writing it, Harvey said she "thought of it as a space pastoral - a kind of nature writing about the beauty of space".
The 136-page long story, which is Harvey's fifth novel, takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts.
During those 24 hours they observe 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets over their silent blue planet, spinning past continents and cycling past seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans.
It's a very 'geographical' book. One theme of the book is the astronauts following the progress of a super typhoon - helpless to do anything but watch and report.
BBC News coverage here.
Chair of the judges, Edmund de Waal, described Orbital as a "book about a wounded world".
He said the judges all recognised its "beauty and ambition" and praised her "language of lyricism".
Writing it, Harvey said she "thought of it as a space pastoral - a kind of nature writing about the beauty of space".
The 136-page long story, which is Harvey's fifth novel, takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts.
During those 24 hours they observe 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets over their silent blue planet, spinning past continents and cycling past seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans.
It's a very 'geographical' book. One theme of the book is the astronauts following the progress of a super typhoon - helpless to do anything but watch and report.
Their perspective on the Earth is a special one...
If you haven't read it yet, I recommend that you get yourself a copy.
I have a unit in mind based on the book to help students to describe the landscape from above, and appreciate the special view that the astronauts and cosmonauts get.
Well done to Samantha. I was hoping that the book would win. I hope that it leads to lots more people experiencing this excellent book.
I am planning a new unit based on the book which I shall be teaching to Year 6 students in January 2025. More to come on this as the project develops.
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