Orbital
By Samantha Harvey
Atlantic Monthly Press
ISBN: 978-0802161543
224pp.

Samantha Harvey’s masterful novel Orbital is a captivating read, especially in her striking portrayal of a typhoon as seen through the eyes of space travellers observing its devastating impact on Earth.

From their detached, powerless position, the astronauts observe the chaos unfold: rain lashing the land, a dog flung by the wind, an airport crumbling under the storm’s fury, as the typhoon relentlessly sweeps across the landscape. This moment compels one to reflect on the overwhelming power of nature and humanity’s vulnerability in the face of it. This deceptively slim book is packed with many descriptions that are just a part of the philosophical deliberations.

Orbital won the 2024 Booker Prize and, in the author’s own words, it “uses space as a vantage point” to explore profound themes. Written during the pandemic lockdown, as Harvey revealed in her Booker Prize acceptance speech, this concise yet powerful novel chronicles the journey of six astronauts and cosmonauts as they orbit Earth aboard a spaceship. Remarkably though, Orbital is neither science fiction nor a dystopian narrative.

Instead of catastrophising humanity’s future, the book offers a meditative reflection on the experience of observing Earth from the boundless expanse of space. For general readers, this deeply contemplative work is both accessible and thought-provoking, one that invites them to ponder the human condition from a perspective that is at once extraordinary and universally resonant.

Winner of the 2024 Booker Prize, a slim novel set in a space station engages with deep questions about the future of humanity and our place in the universe

From the perspective of six astronauts confined to a capsule, far removed from earthly life, Orbital deals with the paradox of freedom and entrapment. Harvey touches lightly on the personal histories of the six characters, their separate stories and disconnected pasts, which include a loveless marriage, the death of a mother and a traumatic childhood. These details are sketched sparingly, yet in a poignant manner. What actually takes centre stage is the visceral: their dreams and fragmented thoughts that surface in the liminal states between wakefulness and sleep. Here, Harvey masterfully captures the unconscious and semi-conscious threads of the characters’ fears, hopes and reflections, and weaves a tapestry of humanity at its most vulnerable and contemplative.

With unflinching clarity that is both complex and stunning, Samantha Harvey explores what life means to these six individuals who embody human ambition and drive. Amid their time in space, astronauts are immersed in conducting experiments, making observations, and occasionally grappling with the haunting fear of never returning to earth. She examines what propels them, what drives their choices, and the motivations that led them to orbit the planet.

While the characters are liberated from the mundane routines of life, they find themselves enclosed in the project of observing the vastness of the galaxy from a different vantage point. This irony shows in their yearning for the very ordinariness they’ve left behind, the rhythms of daily life, imbuing the narrative with an emotive feature.

Harvey seamlessly weaves deeper questions into the narrative and probes into humanity’s insatiable quest for knowledge, the fleeting nature of mortal existence, and the shared beauty of the home we call Earth. Through her evocative storytelling, she urges readers to consider what it means to be human. This includes finding value in ourselves tethered to the simple, granular and profoundly humble aspects of existence.

The strong sensorial quality that permeates the narrative infuses it with a heartwarming resonance. Harvey invites readers to imagine the music of the universe, with its haunting notes of solar winds, the rhythm of magnetic waves and Earth itself as a complex orchestra of sound. She wants us to imagine how our planet is enveloped in a fumbled harmony with other planets, in an intricate, almost perfect symphony. In other words, the narrative compels readers to look beyond the mundane and into the grand expanse of the universe, where humanity is but a peripheral presence.

At the same time, Harvey captures the richness of Earth in vivid detail: the Arctic circles, the rims of seas, the ice sheets of Alaska, and the continents seen not as divided entities but as endlessly connected expanses, overlapping like overrun gardens. Through this lens, she reveals the interconnections that define our world. Repetitive patterns like those of days and nights, seasons and stars, democracies and dictatorships, persist simply because Earth revolves. Harvey masterfully weaves these observations into a meditation on continuity, unity and the fragile beauty of our shared existence. This is where the poetic quality of the narrative shines through.

While each chapter stands alone as a distinct reflection, it collectively moves the story toward the completion of the journey around Earth’s orbit. Individual chapters also serve as a meditation on humanity, of what sets us apart from other species, and how progress is intricately entangled with the dialectics of lust, greed and ambition.

At its heart, the novel is a paean to Earth, which is the only planet with its curves and contours that the astronauts observe from space. Harvey paints with a vast palette of colours; her sentences flow with a lyrical beauty. The imagery she creates is strikingly original, which offers readers a galactic view of Earth that is both humbling and staggering. Through the astronauts’ eyes, she captures the profound wonder of seeing our planet from space. The narrative voice seamlessly carries readers through the thoughts and emotions of the astronauts, rendering their experience both intimate and universal.

Finally, a book review must ultimately answer the question: why read the book? To read Orbital is to engage with the deep questions that define us as humans. What is the future of humanity? How do we understand our place in the universe? Samantha Harvey masterfully broadens our perspective, encouraging us to think deeply about Earth and humanity’s destiny. In this brief yet expansive novel, she tackles weighty themes with remarkable grace, without ever allowing the narrative to feel heavy or overwhelming. That is the true beauty of her writing.

Orbital is both a celebration of life’s origins and an ode to the exquisite splendour of our planet, one that offers readers a deeply reflective and transformative experience. Strongly recommended.

The writer is a lecturer in the Department of Humanities at COMSATS University in Islamabad.

She can be contacted at ayesharamzan83@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, March 2nd, 2025