#BookReview of #Orbital by Samantha Harvey | #audiobook

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024**

‘Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below‘
– Orbital

[ About Orbital ]

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?

[ My Review ]

Orbital by Samantha Harvey published November 2023 with Vintage. I accessed a copy through Cork City Library via the Borrowbox app, choosing the audiobook option as I had heard that the narration by Sarah Naudi was exceptional. Winner of the Booker Prize 2024, it seemed very fitting to listen to Orbital over the last few days as NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore made their return to Earth after being stuck in space for nine months.

The majority of us will never see our planet through a porthole and will never appreciate the sheer impact that such an experience must have on an individual. In Orbital six astronauts are working aboard the ISS (International Space Station), gathering information and carrying out various experiments. As they orbit the Earth multiple times in one day they contemplate their lives and how they have come to be in such a unique and emotive situation. As they behold their view they have existential moments brought on by the sheer enormity and beauty of what they can see or feel at any given time.

An extraordinary compact novel Orbital packs a powerful punch. The language used throughout is mesmerising, with Sarah Naudi’s reading adding an almost ethereal quality to the experience. Exploring the complex theme of being human, it is quite an introspective and quiet read as we spend time with each astronaut as they consider their lives, where they are and what they have left behind on Earth. The scene building is stunning with incredible descriptions of life in space. The whole notion of gravity and its effect on every moment, every move, every thought is quite something to assimilate and grasp.

As Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned home, I listened to the last few pages and wondering how much of what I had just heard was in fact their reality. We spend only twenty-four hours witnessing life on the ISS through the eyes of six astronauts. For Williams & Wilmore it was nine months. Reading Orbital offers the tiniest insight into their shared experience enhancing the reality of what life must have been like for them.

Quietly profound, Orbital is quite an intense read yet also elegant and immersive. On a personal note I would highly recommend the audiobook of Orbital as Sarah Naudi is absolutely exquisite in her tone and her eloquence.

[ Bio ]

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels Orbital, The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping. Orbital was the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, and her other work has been shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women’s Prize, the GuardianFirst Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness was awarded the Betty Trask Prize. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.