Orbital

萨曼莎·哈维China Translation & Publishing House2025

Rating 3.6
Word count
101K words
Chapters
23
ISBN
9787500181392

Tags

Literature Foreign Literature Space StationAstronautStream of ConsciousnessForeign FictionPoetic FictionFull-Length NovelBritish LiteratureBooker PrizeAward Winner

Summary

Orbital is a novel by the British writer Samantha Harvey. It won the 2024 Booker Prize and is the first Booker-winning work set in space. The novel compresses time into a single 24-hour period: six astronauts from the United States, Britain, Italy, Russia, Japan and other countries are stationed on an international space station that orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, so in one day they experience sixteen sunrises and sixteen sunsets. The book's sixteen chapters follow these sixteen orbits. The cabin is cramped and enclosed, their entire world; they are each other's guarantee of safety and become an unusual kind of family. They eat dehydrated food, sleep floating in sleeping bags, exercise methodically to prevent muscle loss, and gaze down at the Earth through the porthole: coastlines shifting between day and night, spiraling typhoon systems, seas of city lights at night, the colors of forests and oceans. From this height national borders vanish, yet the traces of human activity are startling. Their bond with the Earth makes it impossible to remain detached—one remembers a friend who nearly died in a typhoon, one grieves at not having seen his mother one last time, one revisits the details of time spent with his wife. Written in a poetic stream-of-consciousness style, the novel describes how the body changes in weightlessness and reflects on life, civilization and home. It has been called "a love letter to the Earth."

Editor's review

一本把“一天”写成“一圈又一圈”的小说。哈维让空间站的十六圈轨道成为十六个章节，现实时间只有24小时，读者的视野却被拉成整颗星球。她被誉为“21世纪的弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫”，行文是绵密的意识流，句子像失重状态下的水流，缓慢、明亮、彼此渗透，几乎没有传统意义上的情节冲突——这正是它的魅力，也是它挑读者的地方。 值得留意的是它并不科幻。太空只是取景框，真正被凝视的是地球：气象、海洋、城市、边境，以及六个普通人各自的失去与牵挂。在空间站里，他们呼吸的是彼此肺里循环过的空气，喝的是反复过滤的水，这种物理层面的“同呼吸”被写成对人类共同体最朴素也最有力的注解。 中文版由北京大学教授林庆新翻译，译笔保留了原作散文诗般的语调。全书约十万字、两百余页，精装一册，适合在一个安静的下午一次读完。若你读小说要情节紧凑、事件密集，它可能让你着急；若你愿意被语言带着漂浮两个小时，它会给你一种罕见的、从高处回望人间的清醒与温柔。

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. 建议一次性或分两三次读完，短章结构适合跟随“绕地一圈”的节奏推进。
  2. 读时可对照后记或地图想象十六圈轨道的方位变化，帮助进入小说的时空错位感。
  3. 不必强求解读情节，把注意力放在语言与视角上，允许自己在段落间停下来。
  4. 读完可延伸阅读哈维的《荒野》或伍尔夫作品，比较其意识流笔法的异同。

About the publisher

China Translation & Publishing House China · Founded in 1973

China Translation & Publishing House specializes in Chinese and foreign language learning and cultural exchange, publishing in such areas as foreign literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, folk literature, examinations, and finance. Its catalog shows a sustained commitment to bilingual Chinese-English editions, including Shakespeare's Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth in English-Chinese editions, alongside Nineteen Eighty-Four, Jane Eyre, The Call of the Wild, Selected Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe, and Shen Fu's Six Records of a Floating Life. Its authors and translators include Shakespeare, Zhu Shenghao, Charlotte Brontë, Jack London, and Shen Fu. As public information is limited, its full product lines and recent publishing plans are not detailed here; this profile reflects only the bilingual literature and language-learning focus evident in its available titles.

Contents

  1. Penultimate Orbit
  2. Orbit One, Ascending
  3. From Orbit One into Orbit Two
  4. Orbit Three, Ascending
  5. Orbit Three, Descending
  6. Orbit Four, Ascending
  7. Orbit Four, Descending
  8. Orbit Five, Ascending
  9. Orbit Five, Descending
  10. Orbit Six
  11. Orbit Seven
  12. Orbit Eight, Ascending
  13. Orbit Eight, Descending
  14. Orbit Nine, into Orbit Ten, Ascending
  15. Orbit Ten, Descending; Orbit Eleven, Ascending
  16. Orbit Eleven, Descending
  17. Orbit Twelve
  18. Orbit Thirteen
  19. Orbit Fourteen, Ascending
  20. Orbit Fourteen, Descending
  21. Orbit Fifteen
  22. Orbit Sixteen
  23. Acknowledgements

FAQ

《轨道》是科幻小说吗？ 不是。它以国际空间站为舞台，但几乎没有虚构科技设定，重点在宇航员的观察、回忆与哲思。出版社与译者都把它视为融合自然写作与诗化叙事的文学作品，更接近“太空写实主义”。
这本书为什么只有两百多页？ 小说的时间跨度只有24小时，空间站绕地球十六圈，对应十六章，结构高度凝练。中文版约十万字、两百余页，属于以语言和意境取胜的短长篇，而非篇幅宏大的作品。
没有读过哈维的其他作品，可以直接读这本吗？ 可以。《轨道》是她作品中独立性最强的一部，不依赖前作背景。先读它，再回头读《荒野》《西风》等，反而更容易体会她写作风格的延续与变化。
中文版的翻译质量如何？ 译者为北京大学外国语学院教授林庆新，长期研究英美现当代小说。他表示翻译时需先让自己静下来，以匹配原文散文诗般的语调；多数读者评价译文流畅，较好保留了原作的语言质感。
这本书适合作为礼物送人吗？ 较为合适。精装小开本、篇幅短、题材雅致，且是布克奖获奖作品。但若收礼人只爱读情节紧凑的类型小说，则未必对味，建议先了解其阅读偏好。

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About the author

萨曼莎·哈维 Author

Samantha Harvey is a foreign author who is still being introduced to Chinese readers. The available Chinese-language publishing information about her is very limited: her nationality, dates of birth and death, and educational background are not recorded, so it is difficult to sketch a complete picture of her life. According to the existing information, one of her works has been translated into Chinese, namely The Year of Not Sleeping, which is classified as foreign literature. The title suggests that the book revolves around the experience of insomnia and may offer delicate writing about night, wakefulness, and everyday moods, with a style that tends toward introspection and calm. As only a few translations are available, her reputation among Chinese readers is still growing, and a fuller assessment of her work and literary standing must wait for more translations. For readers, this book can serve as an entry point for understanding her writing and how she handles the subtle feelings of personal experience in plain narrative.