“Orbital” by Samantha Harvey is a slender yet powerful novel that captures one day in the lives of six astronauts and cosmonauts hurtling through space—not toward the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. These spacefarers, selected for one of the last space station missions before the program’s dismantling, come from America, Russia, Italy, Britain, and Japan¹.

As they travel at over seventeen thousand miles an hour, we glimpse their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their personal photos, and talismans. We witness their routines—whipping up dehydrated meals, floating in gravity-free sleep, and exercising to prevent muscle atrophy. Most profoundly, we share their awe as they behold and record our silent blue planet, along with the constellations of the galaxy. It’s a contemplative and gorgeous meditation on space, humanity, and our fragile environment¹².