Orbital

**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024** **THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity? 'Our unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition. It reflects Harvey’s extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share' Edmund de Waal, Chair of the 2024 Booker Prize judges *A BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR, DAILY MAIL AND MAIL ON SUNDAY* Show less Our unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and ambition. It reflects Harvey’s extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and precarious world we share Edmund de Waal, Chair of the 2024 Booker Prize judges In this slender novel, Harvey seems to have encompassed all of humanity… It is an extraordinary achievement Observer Gorgeously poetic… I was knocked out. It’s also surprisingly funny… One of the most original novels I’ve read this year Sunday Times, *Books of the Year* Harvey beautifully evokes the wonder and fragility of our planet and its inhabitants. An uplifting book, in every sense Guardian, *Books of the Year* In Samantha Harvey’s Orbital, six astronauts circle the world 16 times. Gliding through Harvey’s technicolour prose is an equally frictionless experience Financial Times, *Books of the Year* Orbital is the rarest of things, a book that satisfies both my lifelong obsession with space travel and my hunger for sentences and paragraphs that demand to be read and reread… My goodness this novel is beautiful New Statesman, *Books of the Year* Eerily beautiful Spectator, *Books of the Year* One of our most consistently surprising novelists rips up the rulebook again… A boldly imaginative meditation on time and the nature of existence Daily Mail, *Books of the Year* Orbital is entirely original, a serenely beautiful and intelligent creation Mail on Sunday, *Books of the Year* This genius novel… Asks big questions about humanity and the fragility of our lives… A short yet exquisite read