DIGILEC Revista Internacional de Lenguas y Culturas

Digilec 11 (2024), pp. 313-316

Fecha de recepción: 11/12/2024

Fecha de aceptación: 14/12/2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17979/digilec.2024.11.11514

e-ISSN: 2386-6691

BOOK REVIEW: ORBITAL

RESEÑA DE LIBRO: ORBITAL

Alba SÁNCHEZ IGLESIAS

Universidade da Coruña

Author: Samantha Harvey

Publisher: Penguin Random House

Place of publication: London

Page count: 136

Year: 2023

ISBN: 978-1-5299-2293-6

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Digilec 11 (2024), pp. 313-316

Orbital by Samantha Harvey, published in November 2023, describes the journey

of four astronauts and two cosmonauts in a mission in space during 16 orbits. Throughout

her career, Harvey has published five novels so far: The Wilderness, All Is Song, Dear

Thief, The Western Wind and Orbital as well as a memoir, titled The Shapeless Unease

(Harvey, 2024). Orbital has been awarded with the 2024 Booker Prize, which had not

been held by a woman since 2019, when Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood won

the award. The Guardian reveals that the novel was “unanimously” chosen as a winner

by this year’s committee; furthermore, it was the best sold book amongst the ones

shortlisted for the award, with 29,000 copies retailed in the UK in 2024 (Cain, 2024). The

judges for the 2024 Booker Prize— Edmund de Waal, Sarah Collins, Yiyun Li, Justine

Jordan, and Nitin Sawhney—, stated that they “were determined to find a book that

moved us, a book that had capaciousness and resonance that we are compelled to share”

(qtd. in Cain, 2024). In 136 pages, Orbital accomplishes all that, the reader is transported

to the spacecraft, where there is a silent, reflective environment, and every moment seems

highly significant, yet ethereal, like stardust.

The novel is divided into 22 chapters, each alluding to an orbit or the placement

of said orbit (e.g. “Orbit 1, ascending”). The narrative occurs over the course of 16 orbits,

each of them lasting about 90 minutes, which means that the audience accompanies the

crew for one whole day during their 9-month mission. Harvey’s writing style stands out

for its capacity to provide the reader with an immersive experience. The author provides

extended, detailed descriptions of what the astronauts are experiencing, intertwined with

philosophical and existential reflections. The story promotes personal and critical

thinking, which is one of Harvey’s goals with this luminous novel. Orbital, despite being

brief, captures the essence of humanity merged with the fragility and vastness of the

universe, providing a narrative that mirrors the singularity of existence itself. Reading the

novel feels like floating without gravity, each word seems to have been carefully chosen,

creating an exquisite read. The reader has to carefully absorb each of the layers in order

to fully comprehend the meanings of the text, as if they were on a space mission with the

task to uncover the key to the secrets of the vastness of the cosmos.

The novel features 6 characters: four astronauts and two cosmonauts from

different nationalities. There are two women and four men: Chie and Nell, from Japan

and Britain respectively; Shaun, from the United States; Pietro, an Italian astronaut; and

two Russian cosmonauts, Anton and Roman. Each of their personalities are introduced as

the story progresses, each of the members represents a crucial part of the spaceship. Anton

is depicted as the spacecraft’s heart, Pietro its mind, Roman (the commander) its hands,

Shaun its soul, Chie the conscience, and Nell the rocket’s breath (Harvey, 2023, p.19).

As the reader accompanies the daily tasks of the members of the ship during their mission

in the International Space Station, their routines in the ship are described as well as their

thoughts, inquiries, feelings, and aspirations. The novel delves into matters such as the

importance of life, the futility of time, and the smallness of the universe.

Orbital manages to keep the reader wondering about existential questions even

after finishing the novel. In the spacecraft, the need for human interaction and connection

is seen from the opening pages of the novel, when the astronauts set a party for the landing

of other astronauts in the moon and they celebrate it as if it was a birthday party, “it was

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nobody’s birthday but it was a celebration and it was all they had” (Harvey, 2023, p.1).

This demonstrates the necessity for the crew to gather and celebrate, creating moments

of shared joy, showcasing the urge of humans to feel connected and accompanied. The

concept of floating family is introduced to describe their relationship: “they’re everything

to each other for this short of time because they’re all there is” (Harvey, 2023, p.18).

They are indeed a family, a group of people bound by fate rather than by choice,

compelled to share life spaces and dynamics for a period of time.

What is unique about this novel is that it invites reflection, several topics can be

seen through the perspectives of the different characters such as the meaning of life,

religion, gender inequalities, climate change, death, and belonging. Chie loses her mother

while she is in the mission and the novel neatly depicts her grief. She is mourning her

loss, as she has to continue with her detailed schedule in the spacecraft. Although the

novel aims to be realistic in the sense that it aims to portray life in space as it really is,

fiction can be found as well. I wonder whether in a real mission the astronaut would be

informed of something as devastating as the death of a close relative. It would inevitably

affect the mental health of not just Chie, but the overall crew, unavoidably thinking that

the fate of Chie’s mother could have happened to someone else’s beloved ones. A

traumatic news like the death of a mother would threaten the mission and the

organisations in charge would probably not take such a risk. Chie also considers

abandoning the mission at one point, concluding that she could not because it would mean

that two other of her mates would have to give up their dreams and go to Earth with her

(Harvey, 2023, pp. 98-99). Chie prioritizes the mission over her own well-being, driven

by her sense of responsibility for the fate of her crewmates and, in a way, for humanity

as a whole, since they are the chosen ones to represent it.

It is interesting to uncover each of the characters’ personalities and background

stories as the narrative unfolds. Their different cultures clash in the spacecraft, having

each of them very diverse visions of the world as they have had different life experiences

throughout their respective existences. Nell cannot quite comprehend how Shaun, as an

astronaut with so much knowledge about science and the universe, can also be a Christian.

This reflects the disagreements that arise when living together on the spaceship, showing

that as humans, we’re not always able to fully understand each other (Harvey, 2023, pp.

44-45). Chie reveals that her motivation to become an astronaut comes from when she

was a child, she asked her mother if there had ever been a woman in space. At her

mother’s negative response, especially as an Asian woman she decided that she wanted

to become the first woman in space (Harvey, 2023, p. 49). In the case of Roman, he states

that he wanted to become an astronaut before being born, when he knew infinity in his

mother’s womb (Harvey, 2023, p. 120). The astronauts’ distinct inspirations reveal their

personalities by sharing their perspectives of the world, and the characters show

themselves as unique individuals, each with their own weaknesses, dreams, hopes, and

challenges.

Their cultures merge in the story, as they become a floating family. They use

English as a lingua franca to be able to communicate with each other. The characters

finding a third language to communicate underscores the cultural negotiation required in

an interconnected environment, representing the use of a common language as a bridge

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between cultures to collaborate and create a shared environment. Nell and Shaun already

have English as their mother tongue; besides this, the other members of the crew have to

step out of their comfort zones and use a second language to communicate. At one point

in the novel, they discuss the things they miss, particularly the sweets from their

childhood. Each person shares memories of the candies that they enjoyed and the

happiness they brought (Harvey, 2023, pp. 97-98). Through this shared nostalgia, it can

be seen how, despite their diverse backgrounds, everyone finds pleasure in the same

things. This illustrates that, although we are different, we share a common humanity.

In all, the novel offers a deeply immersive experience for the reader. It enables

the audience to travel to the spaceship and feel a void of unknowingness. Through the

characters’ points of view, the reader is left with a feeling of uneasiness, wanting to reflect

upon their existence, identity, place in the world, and the meaning of life. By orbiting the

Earth with the crew, Harvey is able to convey a wide range of emotions to the reader,

wanting to know more about space and Earth, since they are not so distant after all. The

novel is unique because it is able to subtly merge literature with philosophy, science, and

emotional depth, making Orbital an “out of this world” experience and remarkable

addition to contemporary literature, recognizing Samantha Harvey as a stellar storyteller

and thinker.

REFERENCES

Cain, S. (2024). Orbital by Samantha Harvey wins Booker Prize 2024. The Guardian.

Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/nov/12/orbital-by-

samantha-harvey-wins-booker-prize-2024

Harvey, S. (2023). Orbital. London, UK: Penguin Random House.

Harvey, S. (2024). Orbital. Samantha Harvey. Retrieved from

https://www.samanthaharvey.co.uk/

Maher, J. (2024). Samantha Harvey Wins 2024 Booker Prize for “Orbital.” Publishers

Weekly, 271(44), 7. PWxyz, LLC.