Bishopston Not A Book Group  : May

Orbital by Samantha Harvey (2023) 144 pp on 1 May 2025 at 19:30 at Mark's

This short book covers the lives of six people in one day aboard the International Space Station (ISS). It provides an insight into how the Earth is viewed from space and raises a range of issues that we can discuss including our place in the universe, weather, time and boundaries.
Is it an uplifting book to make us appreciate even more the simple pleasures we have on Earth or does it show the inevitable demise of humanity ? Harvey said she wanted to find a new way of writing about the planet and humanity’s interaction with it. Has she achieved this ? Is the ISS coming to the end of its life and what does the future of space travel hold ?