Orbital by Samantha Harvey
Like monks meditating in a cell, the astronauts in the International Space Station have a unique, timeless perception of life and existence. Unlike monks meditating in a cell they are travelling at 17,500 kilometres an hour and have orbits of the Earth to mark their lauds and vespers.
Samantha Harvey’s novel ‘Orbital’ has just been announced as the 2024 Booker Prize winner. As I was reading it I decided to see when the ISS would be passing across the Sierra sky. I walked out into a summer evening and saw the white space vessel glide across the heavens and I was deeply moved. Seven supersonic souls reaching out into the void on behalf of us all.
“The earth, from here, is like heaven. It flows with colour. A burst of hopeful colour. When we’re on that planet we look up and think heaven is elsewhere, but here is what the astronauts and cosmonauts sometimes think: maybe all of us born to it have already died and are in an afterlife. If we must go to an improbable, hard-to-believe-in place when we die, that glassy, distant orb with its beautiful lonely light shows could well be it.”
― Orbital