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Orbital: Awe-inspiring Max Porter

(Paperback)


Publishing Details

Full Title:

Orbital: Awe-inspiring Max Porter

Contributors:

By (Author) Samantha Harvey

ISBN:

9781529922936

Publisher:

Vintage Publishing

Imprint:

Vintage

Publication Date:

3rd September 2024

UK Publication Date:

27th June 2024

Country:

United Kingdom

Classifications

Readership:

General

Genre:
Fiction/Non-fiction:

Fiction

Other Subjects:

Narrative theme: Environmental issues / the natural world
Narrative theme: Interior life
Narrative theme: Journeys and voyages
Popular astronomy and space

Dewey:

823.92

Physical Properties

Physical Format:

Paperback

Number of Pages:

144

Dimensions:

Width 130mm, Height 199mm, Spine 9mm

Weight:

118g

Description

Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below Six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below 'A slim, profound study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas' GUARDIAN 'Stunning... An uplifting book' SUNDAY TIMES A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. 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

Reviews

In this slender novel, Harvey seems to have encompassed all of humanity It is an extraordinary achievement * Observer *
Orbital is entirely original, a serenely beautiful and intelligent creation * Mail on Sunday, *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* *
Stunning The beauty of the prose engages the reader fully An uplifting book * Sunday Times *
In contrast to the bleak apocalyptic tone of much contemporary climate fiction, Orbitals luminous descriptions remind us of the beauty at stake when humanity plays fast and loose with our single, and singular, blue marble * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Samantha Harvey is the author of the novels The Wilderness, All is Song, Dear Thief and The Western Wind and a work of non-fiction, The Shapeless Unease- A Year of Not Sleeping. Her work has been longlisted for the Booker Prize, and shortlisted for the James Tait Black Award, the Women's Prize, the Guardian First Book Award and the Walter Scott Prize. The Wilderness was awarded the Betty Trask Prize. She is a tutor on the MA course in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.

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