Booker Prize review: ‘Orbital’ is a wondrous, evocative novel about witnessing humanity from space

From up above, the Earth looks like a “suspended jewel” of blue and green against the black, blank canvas of space. Six astronauts – Anton, Pietro, Roman, Shaun, Chie, and Nell – have a “privileged anxious view” of our planet. They watch a typhoon approaching the “scarily frail” Philippines, the continent of Europe that is “outlined with fine precision”, humanity that hides in daylight and makes its presence known by illuminating the night, and various other markers of our existence. They are confined but alive in space, and the immense distance from the home planet lets the astronauts ponder over the more intangible facets of humanity. For instance, when there is no ground under our feet and free oxygen to breathe, whom do we become?

A longing for home

Samantha Harvey’s slim novel Orbital is set in a day of these astronauts’ lives as they circle the Earth several times over to observe meteorological phenomena and conduct scientific experiments. Besides their crewmates, the only other living creatures onboard are some unsuspecting mice most of whom will perish during the descent. From their vantage position, they see the sun “set” and “rise” over various countries while they follow their own independent – and confusing – 24-hour...

Read more