**WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 2024** **THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** 'A slim profound
study of intimate human fears set against epic vistas' GUARDIAN 'Stunning... An uplifting
book' SUNDAY TIMES Life on our planet as you've never seen it before A team of astronauts
in the International Space Station collect meteorological data conduct scientific experiments
and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their
silent blue planet circling it sixteen times spinning past continents and cycling through
seasons taking in glaciers and deserts the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans.
Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day. Yet although separated from the
world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother and
with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and
people they love in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction. The fragility of
human life fills their conversations their fears their dreams. So far from earth they have
never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask what is life without earth?
What is earth without humanity? 'Our unanimity about Orbital recognises its beauty and
ambition. It reflects Harvey's extraordinary intensity of attention to the precious and
precarious world we share' Edmund de Waal Chair of the 2024 Booker Prize judges *A BOOK OF
THE YEAR FOR THE GUARDIAN SUNDAY TIMES FINANCIAL TIMES NEW STATESMAN SPECTATOR DAILY
MAIL AND MAIL ON SUNDAY *
