Samantha Harvey – Orbital (2023)

November 2024 • Fiction

I could read a tower of non-fiction books about space, climate change and humanity, and they wouldn't pack the same punch as this 144-page novel.

In it, six astronauts and cosmonauts circle our planet on the International Space Station. There's two Russians (Roman and Anton), a Japanese (Chie), a Brit (Nell), an Italian (Pietro) and an American (Shaun). They've all been given a sliver of backstory, just enough to light a spark, and all have their specialties (one focuses on microbes, while another runs experiments on mice).

The book comprises twenty-four hours, during which they orbit Earth sixteen times (“the whip-crack of morning arrives every ninety minutes”). A day in space starts with time on the treadmill or lifting resistance-devices to prevent their weightless muscles from faltering; a day in space ends in something of a floating cocoon, strapped to a bed. In-between, they go about their tasks—running tests and experiments on their bodies, or photographing a typhoon heading towards The Philippines—and spend time together eating their dried food, playing cards or watching a movie.

Through it all, Samantha Harvey's writing feels like it glitters and levitates, at times applying the lightest of touches. She nimbly paints a picture of the cramped confines her characters find themselves in, of the inconveniences you never knew they'd experience, and the beauty they have the privilege to witness—all in a way that makes you feel you're truly there.

Of sleeping in space, she writes:

“You feel all the fizzing stars and the moods of the oceans and the lurch of the light through your skin, and if the earth were to pause for a second on its orbit, you’d wake with a start knowing something was wrong.”

Or, on the jetlag that comes with adjusting to time in space:

“The mind is in a dayless freak zone, surfing earth’s hurtling horizon. Day is here, and then they see night come upon them like the shadow of a cloud racing over a wheat field.”

She zig-zags, as if weightless, and as she describes the magnificence of our planet through minute details or outlines the destruction an ever-more common storm leaves behind, she manages so well to capture the frailness of our planet and our existence in a way that feels hopeful. Alarming, yes, of course. But ultimately, it becomes the kind of book you wish everyone would read: to get as close as possible to experiencing the Overview effect without hopping on a rocket, and to rekindle their appreciation of the speeding planet we inhabit.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Published by Jonathan Cape in 2023

One book recommendation, once per month.
Book #21 • November 2024