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Orbital Cover Image Book Book

Orbital / Samantha Harvey.

Harvey, Samantha, (author.).

Summary:

"A singular new novel from Betty Trask Prize-winner Samantha Harvey, Orbital is an eloquent meditation on space and life on our planet through the eyes of six astronauts circling the earth in twenty-four hours. A slender novel of epic power, Orbital deftly snapshots a day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space -- not toward the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts -- from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan -- have left their lives behind to travel at warp speed as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate. So are the marks of civilization far below, encrusted on the planet on which we live. Profound, contemplative, and gorgeous, Orbital is a gift -- a moving elegy to our humanity, environment, and planet"-- Provided by publisher.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780802161543 (hardcover)
  • Physical Description: 207 pages ; 20 cm
  • Edition: First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Grove Press, 2023.

Search for related items by subject

Subject: Astronauts > Fiction.
Humanity > Fiction.
Satellites > Fiction.
Genre: Science fiction.
Novels.

Available copies

  • 1 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.

Holds

  • 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Status Due Date
Lakeshore Branch FIC Harve 31681010403129 FICTION Available -
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► Awards, Reviews, & Suggested Reads
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  • Baker & Taylor
    In an elegy to our humanity, environment and planet, six astronauts, selected for one of the last space station missions, leave their lives behind to travel at a speed of over 17,000 miles an hour to orbit Earth, witnessing the marks of civilization below.
  • Perseus Publishing

    WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024 • A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    **New York Times Book Review Book Club Pick**

    Winner of the 2024 Hawthornden Prize
    Shortlisted for the 2024 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
    Shortlisted for the 2024 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
    Shortlisted for the 2024 Climate Fiction Prize 

    One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2024

    A singular new novel from Betty Trask Prize-winner Samantha Harvey, Orbital is an eloquent meditation on space and life on our planet through the eyes of six astronauts circling the earth in 24 hours

    "Ravishingly beautiful." — Joshua Ferris, New York Times

    A slender novel of epic power and the winner of the Booker Prize 2024, Orbital deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men traveling through space. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts—from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan—have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over seventeen thousand miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet. Their experiences of sixteen sunrises and sunsets and the bright, blinking constellations of the galaxy are at once breathtakingly awesome and surprisingly intimate.

    Profound and contemplative, Orbital is a moving elegy to our environment and planet.

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