Our thoughts

Source: Penguin Books Australia

Orbital - Book review
By Ken Damon

Fiction serves three purposes. One of them is to entertain, another to inform. It’s the third that is the hardest to achieve: the ability to say something about the world. Not say something in the way of informing people using facts and figures, not informing for the means of persuasion, but to merely say something, and nothing else. It’s this third facet of fiction’s abilities that I find myself drawn to. I want the books I read to present the world in a way that makes me reconsider what I do in my daily life, I want to be challenged, respectfully, and I want to be moved. It’s a tall order, I know. Orbital by Samantha Harvey does this and more.

Orbital, Samantha Harvey’s most recent novel was recently awarded the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in December of 2024. This award is gifted by a panel of esteemed literary judges to what they consider to be the most impactful novel published in Great Britain that year. It’s this award that convinced me to give this novella a try; while the Booker is awarded to novels, Orbital barely scrapes more than 130 pages. However, the thinness of its profile does nothing to diminish its effect as a startlingly good piece of literature. After reading, all I can say is that the Booker Prize is wholly deserved.

Orbital is a fictional story that takes place on the ISS (International Space Station) and over the course of a single ‘space day,’ otherwise known as 16 orbits around the earth. In these 16 orbits, Harvey presents a masterclass in saying a lot in a little, and allows the reader to interpret their own meaning to the text. In terms of plot, there is relatively little: a storm, a death, food.

The power of this novel comes from the unique perspectives of the astronauts. Whilst they float thousands of miles above the earth’s surface, they are simultaneously immune and completely in tune with the earth’s natural and social forces. When a lunar mission passes their distance from the earth, they are suddenly forced into social irrelevancy (is this a metaphor? It’s only one of many times I caught myself asking this throughout my read).

Harvey has completely mastered the art of platonic delivery, and it’s this tone that made the novel so powerful in its messaging. When a cataclysmic hurricane is described with the same distanced aplomb as canned tomatoes, it evokes a truly guttural reaction. Is this because neither are important, or are they merely of equal, startling importance?

In 2024, I’ve read some of the best works of fiction in my life. I’ve read Powers, Kesey, Lynch, Woolf, and more. However, when I look back on this year in words, Orbital stands alone. In fact, it became a repeat Christmas present from me to friends and family this past holiday. It would be harder to recommend if it weren’t so succinct in its page count, and if Harvey’s narration wasn’t so thoughtfully written that reading it feels like a warm hug. From page one, she picks you up like a mother reading at bedtime and gives you every reason to trust her ability as a storyteller. Orbital is a gift of words.

If you’re interested in contributing nonfiction essays like this, please send entries to x9n78@students.keele.ac.uk with the subject format Nonfiction – Preferred Name – Title of Piece