“Raw space is a panther, feral and primal; they dream it stalking through their quarters.”
“There’s a lingering sense of an unfinished dream, something wild in his thoughts.”
The Booker train is certainly off to a roaring start, and I think this may be the first year I complete the longlist before the winner is announced. I won’t finish before the shortlist is announced on 9/16 because the Richard Powers story won’t be published until the end of September (in both the UK and the US), but hopefully that will be the only outstanding novel from the list. In addition to the two I already owned, I purchased four (one that my library doesn’t carry). The other half of the Booker Dozen are coming from my local library and dependent upon the holds coming in. But I will have certainly read the list before the winner is announced, and that makes me very happy.
Book four of my 2024 Booker journey was Samantha Harvey’s Orbital (Grove Press 2023). It’s a slim little love letter to space and earth, but it is very much a novel of being in someone’s headspace; it’s heavy on thought, little on action. I think that Booker lists often reflect the prior year’s list, and this novel certainly did bring to mind the space portion of In Ascension. It was lot of the same of being in the crew’s head, their routine and rather mundane daily activities, their health concerns, their studies, and the loved ones they left behind. The crew is larger in Orbital and the novel doesn’t just stick with one crew member, but I did feel a bit like I’d just picked up In Ascension again.
I’m going to sound like a broken record when I say that the writing is beautiful, but it is. I’ve never read Harvey before. I know she’s been longlisted previously for a 2009 work. (She’s one of four authors from the 2024 longlist who are repeaters.) The exquisite writing oozes that Booker type. These very pretty books are usually low on my list of favorites when I read, but I can appreciate the talent in the story.
My favorite part of Orbital is this overall idea that after 9 months in this sardine can floating in space, they will be born back into a life where they are grounded. And every last one of them seems to dream of going home where they know they will dream of being in space. The smaller detail that I really gravitate to, and what gives this novel its heart, is Chie, who is mourning the loss of her mother. From her not wanting to return to earth because in space she can pretend her mother is still alive to her thinking about the bone picking ceremony, it’ll squeeze at your heart. Another favorite is the crew being from multiple nationalities, including some that are not friendly to each other, having this “space family” flying over an earth wherein they see no boundaries, no borders.
This is probably my least favorite of the four I’ve read thus far, and if this ends up being my lowest ranked book from the list, then that was a damn fine list.
Booker Count: 4 of 13
A Girl Named Tommi 
I like your Booker series. Orbital is the only book I have read. (Also wrote a review on my page) Any suggestions on which book to read next?
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Booker ride is a good ride for me, even if I’d have selected others for the longlist. In looking at your page, I might would recommend No One Is Talking About This is the debut novel by American poet Patricia Lockwood – it was longlisted a couple of years ago. The Bullet Swallower for a magical realism spaghetti western that I’d hoped would show up on the list this year.
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