Login
Account
Basket
Lisa writes: “Orbital is a profound and moving book that follows the International Space Station for 24 hours, witnessing the joys and struggles of the six astronauts living there. The book is structured around 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets, with the sun rising roughly every 90 minutes – a beautiful but distorting backdrop for the reader and for the astronauts we follow. The Earth is a breathtaking, borderless sphere, with oceans swirling, deserts glowing and cities twinkling silently in the dark. In contrast to their awe-inspiring, incredible view of our planet, and the vastness outside, the daily lives of the astronauts are strictly structured with exercise regimes, craft maintenance and carefully planned meals and movements, all within the confines of a space capsule.
This book inspired a sense of wonder that stayed with me for a long time after I’d finished reading it, reminding me just how amazing it is to be here!”
Read on to find out more about the book and the author.
About the Book
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?
About the author
Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels Orbital, 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. Orbital was the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, and her other work has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women’s Prize, the Guardian First 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.
