2024 Booker Prize
2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction (finalist)
2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction (shortlist)
**AS FEATURED ON BBC RADIO 4**
**SHORTLISTED FOR BOOKER PRIZE 2024**
'A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas'
GUARDIAN
'Stunning... An uplifting book'
SUNDAY TIMES
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before
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?
Genre: Literary Fiction
**SHORTLISTED FOR BOOKER PRIZE 2024**
'A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas'
GUARDIAN
'Stunning... An uplifting book'
SUNDAY TIMES
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before
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?
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Orbital is a magnificent, thunderous work and yet so brief, so fleeting. It is an elegy to planet Earth in all its splendour and fragility. Exquisitely well-written, it confirms Samantha Harvey as a singular talent." - Nathan Filer
"One of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time." - Mark Haddon
"Six astronauts on a space station are working, sleeping, and watching the world go by. They think about typhoons, algal blooms, seascapes, cities at night, Velazquez, frog calls, fried eggs, family. Orbital is a lush description of the gorgeous earth, and a broad-minded, level-headed, affectionate take on what goes on down here." - Daisy Hildyard
"A gorgeous song of praise from on high, a hymn sung in starlight to celebrate mankind's courage and endeavour. And without preaching or speeching it also serves as a lyric reminder of all we might lose if we do not mend our ways." - Mike McCormack
"I admire Orbital even more than the rest of Harvey's work... I don't think I've read anything else with such love for its characters and such clarity about the state of the planet, and I was deeply grateful for the novel's refusal of despair or cynicism." - Sarah Moss
"This is such a beautiful book you have to adjust your readerly heart to take it all in. The plot is simply and extraordinarily our planet, watched by a handful of souls. Orbital wonders what it's like to be a human 'with a godly view' and because Samantha Harvey is such a spectacular prose stylist the wondering takes the form of breathtaking colour storms and brilliant encircling epiphanies of time and scale, technology and love, ambition and faith. It is an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it." - Max Porter
"A radiant explosion of a novel." - Jamie Quatro
"One of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time." - Mark Haddon
"Six astronauts on a space station are working, sleeping, and watching the world go by. They think about typhoons, algal blooms, seascapes, cities at night, Velazquez, frog calls, fried eggs, family. Orbital is a lush description of the gorgeous earth, and a broad-minded, level-headed, affectionate take on what goes on down here." - Daisy Hildyard
"A gorgeous song of praise from on high, a hymn sung in starlight to celebrate mankind's courage and endeavour. And without preaching or speeching it also serves as a lyric reminder of all we might lose if we do not mend our ways." - Mike McCormack
"I admire Orbital even more than the rest of Harvey's work... I don't think I've read anything else with such love for its characters and such clarity about the state of the planet, and I was deeply grateful for the novel's refusal of despair or cynicism." - Sarah Moss
"This is such a beautiful book you have to adjust your readerly heart to take it all in. The plot is simply and extraordinarily our planet, watched by a handful of souls. Orbital wonders what it's like to be a human 'with a godly view' and because Samantha Harvey is such a spectacular prose stylist the wondering takes the form of breathtaking colour storms and brilliant encircling epiphanies of time and scale, technology and love, ambition and faith. It is an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it." - Max Porter
"A radiant explosion of a novel." - Jamie Quatro
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Used availability for Samantha Harvey 2's Orbital