The book that soared away
Can you guess what it is?
I THINK WE NEED TO RENAME THE SHOP. “Orbital, and other stories” should do it.
The Booker imprimatur means the winner always sees a big spike in sales in the weeks after each year’s ceremony. But since Samantha Harvey’s slimline volume won this year’s award on Tuesday, Orbital hasn’t just leapt — it has soared away. Which I guess is appropriate for a story about the International Space Station.
At the beginning of Saturday — always our busiest day — Sally and I bet each other how many copies we would sell by the time we shut up shop. I won’t say which of us was closest, but our estimates were well off the mark. In the event, about every tenth book we sold yesterday was a copy of Orbital.
As I dashed between the stock room and the shelves, it felt different to previous Booker weeks — and the stats backed that up. We sold more than twice as many copies as on the Saturday following Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’s win in 2022, and seven times as many as Prophet Song on the equivalent day last year.
Whether all this will be enough to dislodge Butter from the top of our year’s bestsellers remains to be seen. As it stands, we’ve shifted 77% more of the chunky yellow phenomenon than our second bestseller of 2024 — a slightly less chunky yellow phenomenon, Yellowface. But after this week, the race is back on. Something tells me that my colleagues are going to have Orbital-scanning fatigue by Christmas Eve.
Of course, I was rooting for our Backstory novel of the year, The Safekeep, on Tuesday night — which remains an incredible novel, and well worth buying with your copy of Orbital! But I am delighted about Orbital’s victory. Of course it’s a bookseller’s dream because it is in paperback (just £9.99!) and it is so short it would be rude not to try it (just 136 pages!) But also — mostly — because it happens to be really bloody good.
After months of pestering from its in-house champions Denise and Savannah, I finally started reading the day after it won. And, my goodness, now I know what they’ve been going on about. It’s such a simple conceit — essentially, a day in the life of astronauts on the space station — but so beautifully told.
Harvey has done something truly original in producing a space book that will appeal as much to readers like me who like their fiction gritty and true-to-life as to sci-fi obsessives. Orbital is, she says, not science fiction, but “space realism”.
“I’m not a space geek,” Harvey told our fiction book club when she joined us for a session on Orbital back in September. “People write sci-fi and they write non-fiction about space. But nobody writes realist fiction about our habitation of space. Humans have been up there for a quarter of a century now, just every day going round and round the earth. It’s a human habitat now, but it’s never written about as a human habitat — except, like in Gravity, to then catastrophise it. And I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to write about the mundane ordinariness of it as it has become now — but also the ever-renewing extraordinariness of it.”
Based on rigorous research about life on the space station and its orbits of the Earth, the book is as much about the wonders of our planet, of human life, as it is about space.
“I was feeling worn down by the world a bit, by politics, by the pain of the world,” she told our book club. “There was something about trying to zoom out and look at it from a very different perspective and try to see it in its fullness that allowed me to reconcile a lot of different thoughts and feelings I have about being alive on this planet today.”
Back on Saturday, one customer clocked our till-side stack to tempt impulse buyers as she made her way to the counter with a copy she had picked up elsewhere in the shop, overhearing Sally and I adding another sale to the tally we were keeping to track our bet. “Is this the basic book purchase?” she asked, with a chuckle.
I see what she meant: Booker winner in Booker week. But this is such a gift of a book. So be basic and read Orbital right now. I am.
And while you’re at it, join one of our book clubs! Now that Harvey is a Booker winner, in the last three months alone, members of our fiction club have discussed books with the winners of this year’s Booker Prize and Women’s Prize for Fiction, while at the non-fiction club we’ve heard from writers who have scooped Nobel and Pulitzer prizes and the Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction.
The sessions are on Zoom so you can join from anywhere in the world, but they are incredibly intimate: a few dozen of us at most are essentially invited into the author’s study for an hour to talk about their work. Check out the list of upcoming authors — or pop into the shop to pick up a bundle of the first three books for next year and buy someone membership as a Christmas present.
Need Christmas ideas?
Browse our Christmas gift guide, or pick one up in the shop. Packed with ideas for adults and children, the team’s favourite books of the year — and lots of information about our Backstory book subscriptions, which make brilliant gifts.
Remember that you can order anything in the guide (and lots more) from our website with free delivery anywhere in the UK.
Upcoming events
A little taste of our last winter session: Jack Mac.
Winter Sessions: Come to a music night at Backstory for just £5. Coming up:
THIS FRIDAY 22 November, 6 for 7pm Winter Session 2: Alex Cambridge
6 December, 6 for 7pm Winter Session 3: HerOrangeCoat
20 December, 6 for 7pm Winter Session 4: Average Ginger
20 November, 7.30pm Jonn Elledge, A History of the World in 47 Borders SOLD OUT
28 November, 7.30pm Tim Shipman, Out SOLD OUT
4 December, 7.30pm Dan Keeling, Who’s Afraid of Romanee Conti?
When our friends at Noble Rot announced that co-founder and editor Dan Keeling was coming out with a book, we were of course eager to get him down to Backstory. And so we have! Who’s Afraid of Romanee-Conti is a no-fuss wine guide for novices and wine enthusiasts alike. As he visits renowned vineyards all across the world, Keeling questions why some wines seem to matter more than others, all while offering personal recommendations and insights into the winemaking process.
5 December, 7.15pm Jay Rayner, Nights Out At Home SOLD OUT
The Backstory chart
Click on the links to order any of these books from our website with free UK delivery
Hardback
The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Our Backstory novel of the year - a stunning debut set in the Dutch countryside in the 1960s.
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney Megan loves this book about two brilliant brothers, a treat for people who know a thing or two about chess, weird siblings, grief, and thinking deep thoughts but sometimes struggling to express them to the people you love the most.
Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst Our non-fiction book of the year - a beautiful, gripping story of nature and love.
We’ll Prescribe You A Cat by Syou Ishida The cosy and charming bestselling Japanese novel.
The Proof of my Innocence by Jonathon Coe A funny and clever new novel from the bestselling British novelist.
Paperback
Orbital by Samantha Harvey See above!
Kala by Colin Walsh One of my favourite books of last year. A dark, twisty tale of friendship and suspicion set on the Irish coast.
Brotherless Night by VV Ganeshananthan Winner of this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Everything’s Fine by Cecilia Rabess A delightful rom com about two people from very different backgrounds.
Moscow X by David McCloskey This incredible spy thriller is back in the charts.
Join our neighbour for an arty evening
Our lovely neighbour at 81 Balham High Road, Mimi V Artworks, will be hosting an evening of extraordinary graphic art on 23 November from 7pm-10pm.
Prosecco, beer and nibbles provided. All art will be for sale and discounts available for multiple purchases. Pop along if you can!
Join our club
Want to have more Backstory in your life? Why not:
Join our fiction or non-fiction book clubs, which meet every month on Zoom with each book’s author. We’ve heard from winners of the Pulitzer, Nobel and Women’s prizes, and big names like Patrick Radden Keefe, Caleb Azumah Nelson and Christina Lamb. Join for £15 a month or come to a one-off session for £16.
Take out a Backstory book subscription, tailored to each individual recipient. These start from £60 for three months (or £45 for kids) and make brilliant presents.
Happy reading!
Tom