Book Club Guide

Orbital

by Samantha Harvey · 2023 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

The view from outside Earth — and what it changes
One day circling the planet, watching catastrophe below
What it means to be alive on a rock in space

About this book

Six astronauts orbit Earth every ninety minutes, watching sixteen sunrises a day, as storms and fires rage below and one crew member waits for news of her dying mother. Harvey's Booker Prize-winning novella asks what it means to look at the Earth from outside it — and whether distance creates clarity or only the illusion of it.

Published in 2023, Orbital won the Booker Prize in 2024 — announced by Samantha Harvey, who was herself announced as the winner by David Szalay the following year. It is Harvey's fourth novel.

Discussion questions

The novel's central formal conceit — sixteen orbits in a single day — creates a strange relationship between time and space. How does Harvey use this constraint?
The crew watches climate events and natural disasters below. What is Harvey saying through this perspective — about scale, about helplessness, about what you see when you see the whole?
One astronaut is waiting to hear about her dying mother. How does Harvey use this human thread — the smallest scale — against the largest possible backdrop?
The novel won the Booker Prize. It is very short — more novella than novel. What does the compression allow Harvey to achieve that a longer book would lose?
Orbital is partly about whether distance from Earth creates clarity or just removes you from what matters. Does Harvey resolve this question — or does the ending leave it open?