A friend asked me recently whether I liked modern books. I told him that I like good books, some of which are modern. This good modern book is a sterling example of an outstanding book written in the last year. Orbital is a short novel, some 130 pages, and very accessible. It has the feel of something otherworldly. I listened to it on audiobook and felt as though I were myself floating through space.
Edmund de Waal, Chair of judges, said:
‘In an unforgettable year for fiction, a book about a wounded world. Sometimes you encounter a book and cannot work out how this miraculous event has happened. As judges we were determined to find a book that moved us, a book that had capaciousness and resonance, that we are compelled to share. We wanted everything.
‘Orbital is our book. Samantha Harvey has written a novel propelled by the beauty of sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets. Everyone and no one is the subject, as six astronauts in the International Space Station circle the Earth observing the passages of weather across the fragility of borders and time zones. With her language of lyricism and acuity Harvey makes our world strange and new for us.
‘All year we have celebrated fiction that inhabits ideas rather than declaiming on issues, not finding answers but changing the question of what we wanted to explore. 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.’
The writing style is vivid and fresh. Harvey writes with a great fluency and elegant simplicity. There is something beautiful in the way that the simple story of six astronauts floating through space over 24 hours is told. The profundity that Harvey achieves in such a short novel is remarkable. Through each of the astronauts we catch a glimpse of some eternal and recognisable struggle. They each have different struggles with which each of us can identify: grief, longing, disillusionment, faith and lack of faith.
The tone of the book is unique and somehow at once solemn, light and humorous. Its more profound parts are almost skimmed over so that you only notice afterwards the effect they have had. Her words show an incredible intense feeling about the world and how we must be its custodians. This is indeed relevant for our time, when we see such devastation caused by natural disasters and the emergence of climate-related poverty. Orbital made me see the Earth in a whole new light, in a wider context and in brighter colours. The novel is a bright shimmering portrait of a precious world which achieves a profundity the other Booker nominees did not.
When accepting the Booker Prize, Harvey dedicated her award to those who “speak for and not against the Earth, for and not against the dignity of other humans, other life, and all the people who speak for, and call for, and work for peace”.”