“We matter greatly and not at all. To reach some pinnacle of human achievement only to discover that your achievements are next to nothing and that to understand this is the greatest achievement of any life, which itself is nothing, and also much more than everything. Some metal separates us from the void; death is so close. Life is everywhere, everywhere."
Samantha Harvey's novel - has everything - a measure of how far we've reached, yet how insignificant we are. How the dedicated and intelligent have worked so hard to get where they have - but only to be stepping stones for the next generation, as the previous generations efforts are only found in records if someone so desires to dig them out. What a magnificent, magical, and so far unmatched place, we call our home - our only home still, but how negligible as a planet ours is in the grander scheme of things, as it bides its time before some cosmic incident - mind not an accident, for the math will predict when the incident will occur - blows it apart, plus destroy it in flames.
Then we have the astronauts and cosmonauts, the main characters in of this novel, as their thoughts, and through that their lives are shared with us. It is a mix that carries the scenes described from the same ship, with a human element, as these six have different backgrounds.
The only thing it lacks is a clear plot. But who needs a plot ? When vivid thoughts both amaze us, and in turn show the futility of it all. The novel's concise length of 135 pages is possibly the longest that the reader can with stand without a trace of discomfort for a book of this nature.
This book is an achievement, as the author had blended the continuous live streaming from the International Space Station to describe to us fascinating scenes, who had never seen those images, and the changes that could be seen happening on earth, from space. Samantha has blended that with the thoughts and lives of six trained astronauts and cosmonauts, to bring to us how different life outside of our atmosphere is. There is even a hint of threat to the space ship, through some damage it has sustained, but that is more for our imagination as to where it will lead to. The political, the ecological is also touched to make the book as complete in subject matter, as possible for the reader. Yet, I couldn't suppress the thought that the scenes from the space ship looking in towards the earth feels like the majority of the book. While she manages to present that in a captivating manner, I felt that maybe there was a little tilt in the balance of the book towards those descriptions, which resulted in the book receiving the rating it did.
Yet, I do think it is a book that needs to be read by any reader, who likes to broaden the sub-genres within the broader one of fiction.
Rating: ***1/2
Booker Award for best novel 2024
