Hitchin Book Club invites you to join us for some light hearted discussion about Orbital. This event is a great introduction to the book club (especially if you have never been to a book club before). We always welcome new members of any level of reading experience.
Book Name: Orbital
Book Author: Samantha Harvey
Genre: Literary Fiction / Science Fiction
Published: 2023
Page Count Estimate: 144
Word Count Estimate: 36k
Read Time Estimate: 2h30m
Date: Wednesday 25th June 2025
Start Time: 19:30pm
End Time: approx 21:30pm
Location: The Albert Inn, 50 Walsworth Rd, Hitchin SG4 9SU - sitting at one of the tables inside. Any updates to location I will post in comments on the day.
Goodreads Link
Structure:
- Brief introduction and what you thought about the book
- Discussions based on a set of pre-prepared questions as prompts
- Opportunity to ask any questions to the group
- Closing thoughts and provide a rating for book out of 10
- Book club formally ends - feel free to leave or stick around for general conversations
About book (from Goodreads):
Winner of Booker Prize 2024
Life on our planet as you've never seen it before
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. Together they watch their silent blue planet, circling it sixteen times, spinning past continents and cycling through seasons, taking in glaciers and deserts, the peaks of mountains and the swells of oceans. Endless shows of spectacular beauty witnessed in a single day.
Yet although separated from the world they cannot escape its constant pull. News reaches them of the death of a mother, and with it comes thoughts of returning home. They look on as a typhoon gathers over an island and people they love, in awe of its magnificence and fearful of its destruction.
The fragility of human life fills their conversations, their fears, their dreams. So far from earth, they have never felt more part - or protective - of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
