January’s Title Pick for Adults: Orbital by Samantha Harvey

In our January title pick, Orbital, we accompany six astronauts, two women and four men, from Britain, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia aboard an international space station orbiting earth. For 24 hours we follow their duties and tasks. We learn about the astronauts‘ reflections, wishes, fears concerning their personal lives on earth and now in space. They discuss the meaning of life, the existence of God, climate change… and they observe. From their spacecraft they watch, look with awe and love at this beautiful planet Earth. So far from Earth they seem to have never felt more part of it. 

My Shared Reading group needed some time to immerse themselves in this story. The interesting, the personal bits at first seemed to be hidden behind quite a lot of technical descriptions. Some group members felt irritated in the beginning. There were also comments like: ‘I cannot imagine being in a spaceship’; or ‘This doesn’t have anything to do with my life’. 

But as we read on we learned more about the astronauts – that they were missing their families and felt separated from them – and then my whole Shared Reading group came aboard. We had deep discussions on this ‘floating family’: six people with very different personal stories and experiences, together in one room, not able to leave or withdraw spontaneously. What might it be like to feel much more and much less than a family high above there in space? What would be life, our lives, without the earth? What does really matter to us? 

The longer we shared the astronauts’ feelings and thoughts the deeper we connected. Their questions, wishes and fears transformed into ours. Working on Orbital intensified our emotions, our perspectives of this wonderful planet called Earth, our connections to the people we care for - and all of humanity.  

By Kerstin Graumann, a trained Reader Leader who has founded a partner Shared Reading organisation, Lesevergnügen Bremen, in Germany. Kerstin, like many other Reader Leaders, has read Orbital by Samantha Harvey with one of her Shared Reading groups, and recommended it for our 2026 Reader Bookshelf.