Orbital (novel) facts for kids
 |
|
| Author | Samantha Harvey |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Jonathan Cape Grove Atlantic |
|
Publication date
|
2 November 2023 |
| Pages | 144 |
| ISBN | 978-1-7873-3434-2 |
Orbital is a 2023 science fiction novel by English writer Samantha Harvey, published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and by Grove Atlantic in the US. It follows six fictional astronauts over 24 hours on the International Space Station.
The novel was well received by critics. It won the 2024 Booker Prize and the Hawthornden Prize, and it was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for imaginative fiction.
Contents
Background
Harvey watched a continuous live stream of Earth from the International Space Station while writing the novel. She initially started work on the novel in the 2010s but then stopped after about 5,000 words after feelings of inadequacy regarding her limited knowledge of the complex subject matter of space travel. Harvey told the BBC that she stopped writing as she thought "Well, I have never been to space. I could never go to space ... Who am I to do this?" However, Harvey restarted writing and completed the novel in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, when she stopped worrying about "trespassing in space".
In an interview, Harvey stated that her goal was to write the novel as a "space pastoral", focusing on realism and the beauty of space rather than the speculative nature of science fiction.
Plot
The novel, told over the course of 24 hours, follows six fictional astronauts and cosmonauts from Japan, the United States, Britain, Italy, and Russia, four men and two women, aboard the International Space Station as they orbit Earth. In addition to detailing the official duties and tasks of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft, the novel also features their reflections about humanity and subjects including the existence or nature of God, the meaning of life and existential threats such as climate change. The novel briefly shifts perspective to include the narrative of an alien, a robot, and a pre-historic human sailing on the sea. Each chapter of the novel covers a single 90-minute orbit around Earth, with 16 orbits in the 24 hours.
Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Result | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Booker Prize | — | Won | |
| Hawthornden Prize | — | Won | ||
| The InWords Literary Award | — | Won | ||
| Orwell Prize | Political Fiction | Shortlisted | ||
| Ursula K. Le Guin Prize | — | Shortlisted |
See also
In Spanish: Orbital (novela) para niños
