Samantha Harvey very nearly gave up on her novel Orbital, which last night won this year’s Booker prize. Set on the International Space Station (ISS) 250 miles from Earth, Orbital follows the day-to-day lives of four astronauts and two cosmonauts as they hurtle through the universe at 17,

NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with author Samantha Harvey about her new book Orbital, which examines the fascinating mundane-ness of outer space from the perspective of an international space station.