Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2024)

When I was at the Cheltenham Literature Festival a fortnight ago I went to a session at which four of the shortlisted authors for this year's Booker Prize were interviewed live, with videoed contributions from the two others.

Until this I had not intended to read any of the books this year ahead of the announcement of the winner, but my interest was sparked when Samantha Harvey spoke about her book. And as it is only 136 pages long, I thought I would give it a read. I am delighted I did.

The writing is exquisite, of course, but what makes this worth reading is its sheer originality. It is set on the International Space Station, I think a short time in the future.

There are six astronauts there and the novel takes us inside their minds as their craft orbits the earth sixteen times over the course of a single 'day' while the planet turns beneath giving them continually changing views to look at and muse about.

There is no plot to speak of - and for me that is a very real problem in a novel - but I enjoyed reading this nonetheless because of how much I learned about life on the space station and because it is very thought-provoking about some biggish philosophical issues.

It puts our planet, our lives and our deaths in perspective and it is always good to think like this from time to time. I often find that listening to Eric Idle's Monty Python 'Galaxy Song' from 'The Meaning of Life' film has a similar effect.

It has also made me interested in reading more about the space station which represents a pretty astonishing human achievement in itself and which I have very little knowledge about.

I would be surprised if this actually was to win the Booker Prize. It is memorable, but slim. There are meatier and more worthy books on the list. Still glad I read it though.