? This year’s Booker Prize winner is a poetic exploration of Earth and humanity. Samantha Harvey’s Orbital is a meditation on the human experience, set against the backdrop of space. This slim novel follows a single day on the International Space Station, where six astronauts have to orbit the Earth sixteen times. It details their thoughts and reflections, intertwining them with descriptions of the stunning imagery of our planet from above.

Harvey’s style is both lyrical and precise, capturing the awe and wonder of space exploration while ruminating on profound questions of existence. The astronauts experience love, loss, and are struck with the unbelievable fragility of our home planet. Their conversations are both mundane and philosophical, and offer a glimpse into the human condition stripped of earthly distractions, and amplified by the endlessness of the cosmos.

While some readers may find the pacing slow, or the focus on introspection a bit too meditative, Orbital’s beauty lies in its ability to evoke a sense of tranquility and contemplation in the face of existential horror. Harvey’s masterful use of language transports the reader into the (sometimes claustrophobic) confines of the ISS, offering a thought-provoking perspective on our world and our place within it.

WHERE TO FIND IT- You can find Orbital, as well other nominated novels that made it into the Booker Prize shortlist in Diwan.

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