Orbital (novel): Difference between revisions

Orbital

Author	Samantha Harvey
Language	English
Publisher	Jonathan Cape Grove Atlantic
Publication date	2 November 2023
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	224
ISBN	978-1-7873-3434-2

Orbital is a 2023 novel by English writer Samantha Harvey, published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and by Grove Atlantic in the US. The novel, told over the course of 24 hours, follows six astronauts from Japan, Russia, the United States, Britain and Italy (men and women) aboard the International Space Station as they orbit above the earth. In addition to detailing the official duties and tasks of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft, the novel also features their reflections about humanity and the earth itself touching on subjects such as the existence or nature of God, the meaning of life and new existential threats such as climate change. In other instances, the novel briefly shifts perspective to include the narrative of an alien, a robot, and a pre-historic human sailing on the sea. Each chapter of the novel covers a single 90 minute orbit around the earth, with 16 orbits in the 24 hours.

The novel was well received by critics. It won the 2024 Booker Prize and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for imaginative fiction.

Background

Harvey watched a continuous live stream of Earth from the International Space Station while writing the novel. She initially started work on the novel in the 2010s but then stopped after about 5,000 words after feelings of inadequacy regarding her limited knowledge of the complex subject matter of space travel. Harvey told the BBC that she stopped writing as she thought "Well, I have never been to space. I could never go to space...Who am I to do this?". However, Harvey restarted writing and completed the novel during the pandemic, when she stopped worrying about "trespassing in space".

Reception

Writing for The New York Times, Joshua Ferris states that the position of the astronauts high above the earth, their relative isolation from the rest of humanity, give their reflections, their "transporting riffs, those fine rhapsodies!" a new clarity, uncorrupted from biases, tribalism and conflict as present on earth. Writing for The Guardian, Alexandra Harris also stated that the astronauts' introspection and meditation on humanity was the strength of the novel, stating: "The beauty of the book is at work less in its explicit hymns of praise than deep in its rhythms and structures. And it’s here that some of the most compelling thinking goes on – about the spectacular and the ordinary, distance and intimacy." Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Bethanne Patrick stated that in featuring the six characters in such close proximity to one another, the work seeks to promote humans' mutual dependence to one another. Patrick concluded: "Harvey manages to bring readers back down to Earth, astounded that they’ve traveled so far in such a short period of time, having finished their own orbit through the realms of her rich imagination." Artist Edmund de Waal, chief judge of the Booker Prize, stated that Harvey's writing transformed the Earth into “something for contemplation, something deeply resonant.”

Awards

Year	Award	Category	Result	Ref
2024	Booker Prize	—	Won
	Orwell Prize	Political Fiction	Shortlisted
	Ursula K. Le Guin Prize	—	Shortlisted