Orbital

Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below ''A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas'' GUARDIAN ''Stunning... An uplifting book'' SUNDAY TIMES 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?

Report

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

Product details

• Authors: Samantha Harvey, Harvey Samantha
• Publisher: Vintage UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback
• Released: 08.08.2024
• EAN: 9781529922936
• ISBN: 978-1-5299-2293-6
• No. of pages: 144
• Dimensions: 129 mm x 200 mm x 10 mm
• Subjects: Fiction > Narrative literature; Fiction > Narrative literature > Contemporary literature (from 1945); FICTION / Psychological, Narrative theme: Interior life, Space, planets and extraterrestrial locations, Popular astronomy and space, FICTION / Nature & the Environment, Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world, Narrative theme: Journeys and voyages