Samantha Harvey | Book Chatter

Orbital
By Samantha Harvey
Grove Press, 9780802163622, October 2024, 224 pp.

The Short of It:

Slightly odd in the telling, but riveting nonetheless.

The Rest of It:

Orbital just won the Booker Prize and was getting a ton of buzz so when my library had it available, I snatched it up.

This is another slim book that packs a punch. At just over 200 pages, there is so much here. The story covers six men and women as they travel through space. These astronauts are from all around the world, Russia, Japan, Italy, the US. The story covers one day of their lives, but in space, one day equates to 16 sunrises and sunsets as they literally fall through space.

Harvey spends time with each person. We get a little of their backstory, their random thoughts and how they are faring from being so far away from their loved ones. Would they do it again? Yes, and no. They absolutely feels blessed to be a part of the program but at the same time, being in space takes its toll.

There is humor but there are also some deep thoughts about life back home. It has been said that this book is a love letter to earth. I would agree. Their perception of the big blue planet is sweet and sometimes a bit heartbreaking. As they gaze upon that beautiful sight, they can’t help but wonder what lies ahead for their beautiful home.

As far as stories go, it’s not terribly plot driven. It’s more of an observation and if you like that sort of thing, that day in the life, fly on the wall perspective, then you will be fascinated as I was.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

The Wilderness by Samantha Harvey

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.

The blurb from the publisher:

It’s Jake’s birthday. He is sitting in a small plane, being flown over the landscape that has been the backdrop to his life – his childhood, his marriage, his work, his passions. Now he is in his mid-sixties, and he isn’t quite the man he used to be. He has lost his wife, his son is in prison, and he is about to lose his past. Jake has Alzheimer’s.

As the disease takes hold of him, Jake struggles to hold on to his personal story, to his memories and identity, but they become increasingly elusive and unreliable. What happened to his daughter? Is she alive, or long dead? And why exactly is his son in prison? What went so wrong in his life? There was a cherry tree once, and a yellow dress, but what exactly do they mean? As Jake fights the inevitable dying of the light, the key events of his life keep changing as he tries to grasp them, and what until recently seemed solid fact is melting into surreal dreams or nightmarish imaginings. Is there anything he’ll be able to salvage from the wreckage? Beauty, perhaps, the memory of love, or nothing at all?

From the first sentence to the last, The Wilderness holds us in its grip. This is writing of extraordinary power and beauty.

I must get my hands on this one. What did you find this week?

Chatting with friends about books and life…