Harare Review of Books

208 pages.

First published Dec 5, 2023 (Grove Atlantic)

Fiction.

TL;DR A haunting book—while you’re reading it—in which not very much happens, in the end.

I looked forward to reading this all year, and… It wasn’t what I expected. Even when it seems like something may happen, it …really doesn’t. Or it does, or off-page, and it doesn’t seem to have too much to do with the story in the end. And that’s my biggest criticism of the book. If you’re in it for a meditation on the planet, and human life on it, then it could be wonderful.

There are many thoughts, many repetitive thoughts—on the geography of Earth as seen from Space, on LEO, on travel to the moon, and one day to Mars. That makes up perhaps 90% of the book. The rest is a little about the lives and interiority of the astronauts and cosmonauts, but there really isn’t much of that. And after having finished it some days ago, I find my recollection of Orbital blurry, and my feelings about it fairly…meh.

So. It disappointed me, but I probably expected too much, or something different. The mileage of other readers will vary, I’m sure. I am still glad I read it, and maybe snippets of it will come back to me over time. Certainly I’ll remember the bit about national toilets.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Grove Atlantic for access.