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English
Vintage
03 September 2024
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before
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*SHORTLISTED FOR BOOKER PRIZE 2024
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'A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas' GUARDIAN

'Stunning... An uplifting book' SUNDAY TIMES

Life on our planet as you've never seen it before

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?
By:  
Imprint:   Vintage
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 196mm,  Width: 129mm,  Spine: 9mm
Weight:   117g
ISBN:   9781529922936
ISBN 10:   1529922933
Pages:   144
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels 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. Her work has been longlisted for the Booker Prize, and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women's Prize, the Guardian First 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.

Reviews for Orbital

A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas of swirling weather patterns and rolling continents * Guardian, *Autumn Picks of 2023* * I admire Orbital even more than the rest of Harvey's work... I don't think I've read anything else with such love for its characters and such clarity about the state of the planet, and I was deeply grateful for the novel's refusal of despair or cynicism -- 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 One of the most beautiful novels I have read in a very long time -- Mark Haddon, author of The Porpoise Very beautiful and very special * New Scientist *


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