The recipient of the fourth TILA is Samantha Harvey (pictured below) for her novel Orbital. The announcement was made during the Cheltenham Literary Festival.
“Orbital is a wholly original gem of a novel, following the thoughts and actions of four astronauts and two cosmonauts working in floating harmony on a space station 250 miles above the earth. The craft orbits the rotating planet sixteen times during that period, in which the sun ’rises’ and ‘sets’ repeatedly, giving the most basic concept of the passage of time a surreal quality,” the sponsors of the award explain.
“Each pathway and its landmarks and weather patterns differs from the last. The geographic place names and recognisable features become a poetic, almost prayerful litany. There is a strong urge to hold a globe in one’s own hands while reading, but would mean putting down this mesmerising story.
“The scientific grounding feels sure, but the power of this small book is in the amity of the crew as they go about their routine tasks, despite the sometimes clumsy political attempts to keep them separated. The six characters feel ‘grounded’, in the best possible way, and are bound together by their shared commitment and their individual and collective vision. They have emotional tethers to the planet they see so clearly passing below them, and in some cases these ties are specific and vital. They also have the vast serenity of the cosmos around them, giving them, and us as readers, an invaluable reminder of our context. Reading this exquisite small novel rekindled a sense of wonder, and for that we are deeply grateful.”
