Orbital: A Novel (Booker Prize Winner)

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

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

**Stephen Colbert's The Late Show 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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Published Dec 5, 2023

224 pages

Average rating: 6.59

532 RATINGS

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What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *Orbital* is a beautifully written, meditative novel with poetic prose that explores a single day aboard the ISS through the blurred consc...

checkoe

Jul 19, 2025

10/10 stars

This novel is based on the lives of 6 astronauts on board a space station orbiting the Earth. Samantha has researched this extensively before writing. The result is that the reader can feel as though they are sharing these extraordinary experiences with the crew - from the arduous training regimen, preparing for takeoff and all the impact that being in a microgravity environment has once there. The prose is beautiful. The story covers a 24-hour period, which covered 16 orbits for the space station. This book may be a mere 136 pages long, but it took me a lot longer to finish than one would expect! It needs to be savoured. For those who like a story with a clear evolving storyline and plot, then this is probably not for you. It is a wonderful literary meditation, and I can see why it has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024. Thank you for such a wonderful book.

Zoe E.

Jun 03, 2025

7/10 stars

I can see why so many people are enchanted with this book - it's lyrical and beautiful and both grand and intimate in scope. But ultimately I guess I just need a little more plot in my novels!

cozyandcontentnc

Feb 28, 2025

6/10 stars

I respected Orbital for what it set out to do—capturing the fluidity of time and experience in space in a way that reflects the number of orbits in a day. The writing mirrors the disorienting, almost dreamlike quality of existing in microgravity, which, once I allowed myself to embrace, gave me a deeper, more personal understanding of what being in space might actually feel like. It’s not a book driven by plot or even traditional structure, but rather an immersive, meditative experience. That said, if you go in expecting a conventional novel, you may struggle with it. The narrative drifts, much like its setting, and while that’s intentional, it won’t be for everyone. It’s been described as “barely a novel,” and I’d have to agree—it reads more like an extended reflection or poetic meditation on existence, time, and space. Overall, I appreciated the artistry behind it, even if it wasn’t always the easiest read. If you’re open to something unconventional and atmospheric, Orbital is a fascinating experience. But if you’re looking for a structured story, this might not be the book for you.

Renmoews

Jan 18, 2025

4/10 stars

Very poetic…but pointless

dcusanelli

Feb 12, 2026

8/10 stars

The novel portrays a 24hr snap shot of six astronauts circling the earth at high speeds in the international space station. Each revolution around the earth taking 90 minutes (16 revolutions per 24 hours). The book is an exquisite and inciteful read about mankind through the eyes of the six astronauts. They discuss humanity, the existence of God, the earth and more from the point of view of space, akin to aliens looking at the earth and its inhabitants for the first time. It is almost a philosophy book on God and humanity from a unique perspective. The downside of the novel, if you want to call it a novel, was its very loose almost non-existent plot with little character development. It was more about the planet earth than the six astronauts. I gave it an 8/10 rating for the inciteful read. It lost marks because of the poor character development.