Orbital by Samantha Harvey

“All your dreams of adventure and freedom and discovery culminate…and then you go nowhere but round and round with the same old thoughts going round and round with you.”

Orbital by Samamtha Harvey is a beautiful and contemplative book. It’s part of a growing subgenre of books in which nothing much happens, but takes to another level by coming to a climax when all the characters are asleep. Even so, the book covers a lot of territory - birth, death, religion, new love blossoming, old love fading, climate change, the insignificance of individuals and even of humanity in general, political division, simple bonds of shared experience… all the important topics.

“Our lives here are inexpressibly trivial and momentous at once…”

“A human being was not made to stand still.”

Those looking for a space book brimming with technical detail will not find it here. The focus is on the interior, an examination of our world from the outside that is inside our heads.

For those wondering where the plot is, it’s right here:

24 hours of Earth orbits

A book of vivid images

There are a few images that play a role in the book. The first is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez called Las Meninas, which is used to discuss perspective.

Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez

Michael Collins, the astronaut who took this photo of the Lunar Module from the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, is the only human, alive or dead that isn’t in the frame of this picture.

Lunar Module from the Apollo 11 mission

The Earth from the International Space Station.

View from the International Space Station

Orbital is a love letter to our home planet, “a celebration of the Earth […] with a pang of loss.” It’s the change of perspective that many of us need right now.

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