Umlaufbahnen

Viewed from above, the world looks entirely different. Six astronauts float in a space station in the cosmos. They orbit the planet Earth every 90 minutes, sixteen times in 24 hours. The two women and four men from various nations work, eat, and sleep in close quarters – yet everything is detached from everyday life; gravity and the sense of time are suspended. What happens when you see your homeland only from afar through a small window? How do thoughts and feelings change? In just one day, as the sun rises and sets sixteen times, this unusual, powerfully poetic novel explores the big and small questions of humanity and brings us close to the beauty of the universe. Awarded the Hawthorndon Prize for Literature 2024 and nominated for the Booker Prize 2024. "This novel is so magnificent that as a reader, you must expand your heart to take it all in. A breathtaking and humbling love letter to Earth and to all who do not underestimate its gifts." Max Porter. "Transcendent nature writing. A brief yet profound study of humanity's familiar fears against the backdrop of monumental descriptions of swirling weather patterns and rotating continents." The Guardian. "Magical – an extraordinary and immensely original novel." The New Yorker.