Orbital

Life on our planet as you've never seen it before

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.

Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.

The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?

Review

Our unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition. It reflects Harvey’s extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share -- Edmund de Waal, Chair of the 2024 Booker Prize judges

In this slender novel, Harvey seems to have encompassed all of humanity… It is an extraordinary achievement ― Observer

Gorgeously poetic… I was knocked out. It’s also surprisingly funny… One of the most original novels I’ve read this year ― Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*

Harvey beautifully evokes the wonder and fragility of our planet and its inhabitants. An uplifting book, in every sense ― Guardian, *Books of the Year*

In Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, six astronauts circle the world 16 times. Gliding through Harvey’s technicolour prose is an equally frictionless experience ― Financial Times, *Books of the Year*

Orbital is the rarest of things, a book that satisfies both my lifelong obsession with space travel and my hunger for sentences and paragraphs that demand to be read and reread… My goodness this novel is beautiful ― New Statesman, *Books of the Year*

Eerily beautiful ― Spectator, *Books of the Year*

One of our most consistently surprising novelists rips up the rulebook again… A boldly imaginative meditation on time and the nature of existence ― Daily Mail, *Books of the Year*

Orbital is entirely original, a serenely beautiful and intelligent creation ― Mail on Sunday, *Books of the Year*

About the Author

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping. Her work has been longlisted for the Booker Prize, and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women's Prize, the GuardianFirst Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness was awarded the Betty Trask Prize. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.