Orbital (novel)

Orbital

Author	Samantha Harvey
Language	English
Publisher	Grove Atlantic
Publication date	2023
Publication place	United Kingdom
Pages	224
ISBN	978-0-8021-6362-2

Orbital is a 2023 novel by Samantha Harvey, published by Grove Atlantic. 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 and was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, the Orwell Prize for political fiction, and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for imaginative fiction.

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."