A slender novel of epic power, "Orbital" deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space.
Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts — from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan — have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude.
Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.
Profound and contemplative, "Orbital" is a moving elegy to our environment and planet.
Hardcover, 224 pages
Atlantic Monthly Press (December 5, 2023)
ISBN-10: 0802161545
ISBN-13: 978-0802161543
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 53487 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-13-2024 08:43 AM
The Booker Prizes release
Orbital by Samantha Harvey wins the Booker Prize 2024
Orbital by Samantha Harvey has been named the winner of the Booker Prize 2024. The winner was announced by Chair of the judges, Edmund de Waal, at a ceremony held at Old Billingsgate in London. Harvey receives £50,000 and a trophy, which was presented to her by Paul Lynch, winner of the Booker Prize 2023.
Harvey's novel takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. Compact yet beautifully expansive, Orbital invites us to observe Earth's splendour, whilst reflecting on the individual and collective value of every human life.
Chair of the judges, Edmund de Waal, describes the winner as "a book about a wounded world," adding that the panel's "unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition."
British author Samantha Harvey, one of five women on a history-making shortlist, is the first woman to win since 2019.
"Orbital" has been the biggest-selling book on the shortlist in the UK, and has sold more copies than the past three Booker Prize-winners combined had sold up to the eve of their success.
It is the first Booker Prize-winning book set in space.
At just 136 pages long, it is the second-shortest book to win the prize and covers the briefest timeframe of any book on the shortlist, taking place over just 24 hours.
Harvey said of writing "Orbital": "I thought of it as space pastoral – a kind of nature writing about the beauty of space."
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3774 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 11-13-2024 09:50 AM
I suspect I am not alone among avid book-readers when I say that it's usually a big turn-off to learn that a particular book has won the Booker Prize. The fact that this winner is "a space book" means that I will probably buy it (or someone will buy me it for Christmas) but if if I read it, it will be in spite of, not because of, its status as a Booker Prize winner.
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 53487 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 11-13-2024 11:39 AM
I'm not sure why a prize would diminish a book's desirability, but it successfully did what I think most prizes are designed to — raise awareness.
I hadn't heard about "Orbital" until the news of the prize, but from what I have read about Samantha Harvey's work since then, I am grateful for the information. I look forward to reading it.
lucspace Member
Posts: 526 From: Hilversum, The Netherlands Registered: Oct 2003
posted 11-14-2024 04:05 AM
I read this book this summer and was immensely impressed. It took some pages to get used to the almost complete absense of dialogue. Eventually, this only enforces the complentative character of this tale. It must have taken considerable research into the daily life on board the ISS to achieve the level of realism this novel displays. At the same time it is dreamy and philosofical. I would imagine this publication not to be to everyone's taste but I would love to hear the opinions of some ISS flyers on this very original novel.
Axman Member
Posts: 607 From: Derbyshire UK Registered: Mar 2023
posted 11-14-2024 07:15 AM
For what it's worth, I bought this book and read half of it in one day... I haven't bothered to open it to finish the other half. I found it to be self absorbent navel gazing at its worst, full of over flowery sentences.
Here is a random extract from the beginning section...
They have each at some point been shot into the sky on a kerosene bomb, and then through the atmosphere in a burning capsule with the equivalent weight of two black bears upon them. They have each steeled their ribcages against the force until they felt the bears retreat, one after the other, and the sky become space, and gravity diminish, and their hair stand on end.
When I read it, it quite often made me cringe, the reading equivalent of listening to fingernails scrape down a blackboard.
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3774 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 11-14-2024 05:14 PM
quote:Originally posted by Robert Pearlman: I'm not sure why a prize would diminish a book's desirability...
The Booker Prize undoubtedly raises a book's profile and therefore its desirability, but not necessarily its readability. All too often there is a difference between what the Booker judges think is a great read and what most regular readers think is a great read. Does that make "most regular readers" Philistines, or does it mean the judges orbit on an altogether different plane?
That said, it's certainly interesting to see a "space book" receiving widespread publicity.
posted 11-13-2024 08:38 AM
advertisement