This story is about six astronauts in orbit around Earth. They see sixteen sunrises. They spend quite a lot of time reflecting on life, God, the future, their families, and so on. The book is also made off lists and names of the geographical features they fly over. They also elaborate on other astronauts who are going to the Moon and observe the evolution of a typhoon. This book won the 2024 Booker Prize. I found it boring and struggled to get through the 200-odd pages. Quite a disappointment.
“Nell wants sometimes to ask Shaun how it is he can be an astronaut and believe in God, a Creationist God that is, but she knows what his answer would be. He’d ask how it is she can be an astronaut and not believe in God. They’d draw a blank. She’d point out of the port and starboard windows where the darkness is endless and ferocious. Where solar systems and galaxies are violently scattered. Where the field of view is so deep and multidimensional that the warp of space-time is something you can almost see. Look, she’d say. What made that but some heedless hurling beautiful force?
And Shaun would point out of the port and starboard windows where the darkness is endless and ferocious, at exactly the same violently scattered solar systems and galaxies and at the same deep and multidimensional field of view warped with space-time, and he would say: what made that but some heedful hurling beautiful force?”