In this slender novel, Harvey seems to have encompassed all of humanity… It is an extraordinary achievement * Observer * Orbital is entirely original, a serenely beautiful and intelligent creation * Mail on Sunday, *Books of the Year* * Orbital is the rarest of things, a book that satisfies both my lifelong obsession with space travel and my hunger for sentences and paragraphs that demand to be read and reread… My goodness this novel is beautiful * New Statesman, *Books of the Year* * Stunning… The beauty of the prose engages the reader fully… An uplifting book * 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 In contrast to the bleak apocalyptic tone of much contemporary climate fiction, Orbital’s luminous descriptions remind us of the beauty at stake when humanity plays fast and loose with our single, and singular, blue marble * Financial Times * Harvey beautifully evokes the wonder and fragility of our planet and its inhabitants. An uplifting book, in every sense * Guardian, *Books of the Year* * Compelling... Orbital is a hopeful book and it studies people who act on their hope. It’s an Anthropocene book resistant to doom * Guardian, *Book of the Day* * One of our most consistently surprising novelists rips up the rulebook again… A boldly imaginative meditation on time and the nature of existence * Daily Mail, *Books of the Year* * Beautiful in every aspect -- Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater This is such a beautiful book you have to adjust your readerly heart to take it all in... It is an awe-inspiring and humbling love letter to Earth and those who reckon with the gift of it -- Max Porter, author of Shy This genius novel… Asks big questions about humanity and the fragility of our lives… A short yet exquisite read * i * One of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time -- Mark Haddon, author of The Porpoise In Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, six astronauts circle the world 16 times. Gliding through Harvey’s technicolour prose is an equally frictionless experience * Financial Times, *Best Books of 2024* * In outer space the author hits on the pure swirlingness that her previous works seem to aspire to. The characters’ thoughts mix and flow with the colours and light… Sumptuously written * Times Literary Supplement * This generation's Virginia Woolf * Telegraph * A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas of swirling weather patterns and rolling continents * Guardian, *Autumn Picks of 2023* * Orbital has a weird, cumulative power that makes it feel like a fever dream * Big Issue, *Books of the Year* * One of the UK's most exquisite stylists * Guardian * A slender, gleaming novel… Weaving a line of philosophical enquiry through her luminous prose has become something of a trademark for Samantha Harvey * Spectator * Very beautiful and very special * New Scientist * Mesmerising… Harvey blends prose of poetic beauty with a clarion call to take responsibility for where we live… Orbital deserves to propel Harvey to far greater recognition * i * Orbital is as beautiful as it is profound -- Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven Harvey’s impressively researched, poetic novel carries a powerful ecological message. Above all, thought, it’s a brilliantly imaginative account of life with the vastness of the cosmos just outside your window * Mail on Sunday * A gorgeous novel… An intensely charged reading experience, sustained by the sensory thrill of Harvey’s imaginative attention to detail * Daily Mail *