Orbital
'Awe-inspiring' Max Porter
By Samantha Harvey
Harry Hartog's review
What does it mean to be human when you're no longer on Earth? A profound novel, small in length but large in its impact. Follow a group of astronauts as they orbit Earth over the course of a week. Dealing with grief, nostalgia and too much time to think, coupled with 16 sunrises, 16 sunsets, and dramatic weather systems. - Ben, Operations
Description
Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below
**LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**
'Stunning... An uplifting book' SUNDAY TIMES
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before- in this spellbinding and uplifting novel six astronauts rotate in the International Space Station. They are there to do vital work, but slowly they begin to wonder- what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
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.
'A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas' GUARDIAN
***A GUARDIAN, NEW STATESMAN AND DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023***
- ISBN:
- 9781787334342
- Format:
- Hardback
- Pages:
- 144
- Published:
- Publisher:
- Vintage Publishing
- Imprint:
- Jonathan Cape
- Weight:
- 229 g