The orbit

A short novel with epic strength, winner of the Booker Prize 2024. It vividly depicts a day in the life of six people, men and women traveling in space. These pioneers – coming from America, Russia, Britain, and Japan – were chosen to complete one of the last missions of the space station before ending the program, leaving their lives behind to travel at a speed exceeding seventeen thousand miles per hour. While the Earth spins beneath them, we catch a glimpse of moments from their lives on Earth through their brief communications with their families, their photos, and their belongings. We see them preparing dried meals, sleeping while floating, and doing rigorous exercises to prevent their muscles from atrophying, as well as forming bonds that will prevent them from complete isolation. Most importantly, we accompany them as they watch their silent blue planet and document information about it. Their experiences with sixteen sunrises and sunsets, and with the sparkling asteroids in the galaxy, are an astonishing mix of breathtaking greatness and unexpected emotion. "Orbital" is a deep and reflective novel, a moving ode to our environment and our planet. "Orbital" novel ● Winner of the Booker Prize 2024 and one of the bestsellers according to The New York Times. ● Winner of the Hawthorne Prize 2024. ● Nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2024. ● Nominated for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction 2024. Author Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels "Orbital," "The Wilderness," "All is Song," "Dear Thief," and "The Western Wind," as well as her non-fiction book "The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping." Her novel "Orbital" received the Booker Prize 2024, and her other works were nominated for the James Tate Black Memorial Prize, the Women's Prize, the Guardian First Book Award, and the Walter Scott Prize. Her novel "The Wilderness" was awarded the Betty Trask Prize. Samantha Harvey is a professor in the Creative Writing Master's program at Bath Spa University.