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Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Orbital is published by Vintage in paperback at £9.99.

Samantha Harvey

Orbital

Winner of the Booker Prize 2024

The No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller

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?

“A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas.” — The Guardian.

“Stunning… An uplifting book.” — The Sunday Times.

“Our unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition. It reflects Harvey’s extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share.” — Edmund de Waal, Chair of the 2024 Booker Prize judges.

A Book of the Year for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Financial Times, New Statesman, The Spectator, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

    Orbital by Samantha Harvey
    • Samantha Harvey

    • Orbital

    • Orbital is published by Vintage in paperback at £9.99.
  • Winner of the Booker Prize 2024

    The No. 1 Sunday Times bestseller

    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?

    “A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas.” — The Guardian.

    “Stunning… An uplifting book.” — The Sunday Times.

    “Our unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition. It reflects Harvey’s extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share.” — Edmund de Waal, Chair of the 2024 Booker Prize judges.

    A Book of the Year for The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Financial Times, New Statesman, The Spectator, Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.