Orbital

Review by Booklist Review

The International Space Station is a study in contrasts, with highly technical equipment sharing space with the soft trappings of humanity. Pouches of easily spoonable food and gym equipment meant to stave off muscle atrophy are required for people spinning above the Earth's atmosphere, but comfort only extends so far. Participating in space walks and conducting experiments, these fiercely qualified humans understand their environment is limited, but the experience remains nothing short of magnificent. Over a single 24-hour period, Harvey (The Western Wind, 2018) outlines the inner thoughts, workaday duties, and grandiose dreams of six astronauts aboard the International Space Station, offering a fascinating glimpse inside a home so few will ever see. Her lyrical prose skillfully contrasts the technicalities of space travel with the ever-present inspiration of the gleaming planet below. And the book encompasses so much more than a day--flashbacks, plans for the future, and present-day anxieties and triumphs are here too. In the stylistic vein of Sara Baume's Spill Simmer Falter Wither (2016) and Paulette Jiles' News of the World (2016), this slim novel is so much more than the sum of its parts. Luminous and profound, Orbital is hard to put down and even harder to forget.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

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Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Harvey's beautiful latest (after The Western Wind) follows a space station's six crew members as they orbit Earth over the course of a nine-month mission. The crew members study the effects of microgravity on the body, report on Earth storms from their unique vantage point, and conduct experiments to learn about the effects of space on flammability, gardening, and human muscle use. Among the crew are Chie, who receives news that her mother has died back home in Japan. As the shuttle continues on its orbit, she dreads their return to Earth--she doesn't want to go back to a world where her mother is gone. Meanwhile, Shaun, an American astronaut who first wanted to be a fighter pilot, debates the existence of God with Nell, a British meteorologist, and they each point to the wondrous infinity of space as evidence of their opposing viewpoints. Recurring quotidian scenes drive the action--the toilet is always breaking and in need of fixing--and though Harvey carefully distinguishes each crew member, their reflections on their love for space and their shared activities lend a sense of cohesion. Harvey suggests that her characters all share various abstract ideas about the planet, which she conveys with lovely lyrical prose ("Its beauty echoes --its beauty is its echoing, its ringing singing lightness. It's not peripheral and it's not the centre; it's not everything and it's not nothing, but it seems much more than something"). This gorgeous meditation leaves readers feeling as if they're floating in the same "dark unswimmable sea." (Dec.)

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Review by Library Journal Review

Six astronauts orbit Earth in the International Space Station in Harvey's (The Western Wind) superb, poetic novel, structured around the 16 Earth orbits that make up one day on the station. She beautifully describes the astronauts' views of the planet: its many changing colors, the catastrophic storms that they can only watch from high above, the damage done by humans, and the changes brought by the passage of the hours. Each astronaut thinks about loved ones on the planet while also remembering the circumstances that put them on the space station. This is not a novel where anything much happens; it is instead a gorgeous meditation on humanity, the foolishness of artificial borders, and what the future might bring. Narrator Sarah Naudi channels the thoughtfulness of Harvey's luminous prose, making the tedium of space travel beautiful while contrasting it with the sheer terror of space walks. The astronauts become a community that is almost organically one; at times, it feels like they could be the only humans in existence. The writing and narration are positively transformative, and what could be dull in another author's hands becomes exquisite in Harvey's. VERDICT This brief, elegiac novel is generating major buzz, so expect high demand.--B. Allison Gray

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Review by Kirkus Book Review

Six astronauts on a space station orbit the planet over the course of a single Earth day. Two hundred and fifty miles above the Earth, a space station goes round and round. Over the course of 24 hours, the astronauts inside experience sunrise and sunset 16 times. Though they're supposed to keep their schedules in tune with a normal "daily" routine, they exist in a dream-like liminal space, weightless, out of time, captivated and astonished by the "ringing singing lightness" of the globe always in view. "What would it be to lose this?" is the question that spurs Harvey's nimble swoops and dives into the minds of the six astronauts (as well as a few of the earthbound characters, past and present). There are gentle eddies of plot: The Japanese astronaut, Chie, has just received word that her elderly mother has died; six other astronauts are currently on their way to a moon landing; a "super-typhoon" barrels toward the Philippines; one of the two cosmonauts, Anton, has discovered a lump on his neck. But overall this book is a meditation, zealously lyrical, about the profundity and precarity of our imperiled planet. It's surely difficult to write a book in which the main character is a giant rock in space--and the book can feel ponderous at times, especially in the middle--but Harvey's deliberate slowed-down time and repetitions are entirely the point. Like the astronauts, we are forced to meditate on the notion that "not only are we on the sidelines of the universe but that it's…a universe of sidelines, that there is no centre." Is this a crisis or an opportunity? Harvey treats this question as both a narrative and an existential dilemma. Elegiac and elliptical, this slim novel is a sobering read. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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