Orbital: 'Awe-Inspiring' Max Porter by Samantha Harvey

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

Sixteen orbits. Sixteen sunrises. Sixteen sunsets. One extraordinary day in space. Six astronauts and cosmonauts circle Earth aboard the International Space Station, bearing witness to the breathtaking beauty of our planet from 250 miles above. From their vantage point, borders vanish. Continents drift past. Oceans shimmer. Below them, seven billion lives unfold in the space between dawn and dusk. They collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe.

Yet when news reaches the crew of a devastating loss—a mother's death—the enormity of distance becomes impossible to ignore. Far from home, suspended between Earth and the infinite darkness of space, they must grapple with grief, connection and what it means to witness the world from the outside looking in. They watch as a typhoon gathers over an island where people they love live, awestruck by 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 of it, or more protective of it. Samantha Harvey's luminous meditation is a "space pastoral"—not science fiction, but nature writing about Earth itself. With prose that is spare, precise and deeply contemplative, she transforms our planet into something profound: a home we too often take for granted, a miracle we must cherish. Orbital is the second-shortest novel ever to win the Booker Prize—yet it contains universes.

Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize. #1 Sunday Times Bestseller. Book of the Year for the Guardian, Sunday Times, Financial Times, New Statesman, Spectator, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.