Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Timbedairmias.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that Samantha Harvey has visited outer space a few dozen times.

Her new book, Orbital, is all about the lives of astronauts on the International Space Station.

And while it's a work of fiction, Harvey worked diligently to capture the detail and imagery of what it means to be of this world, but away from it.

And all the beauty that that allows you to see, Harvey says that's by design.

And she tells all things considered host Ari Shapiro that she's long been obsessed with space and just how to capture the language of living

there.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors on our new show, sources and methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home. Listen to sources and methods

on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. There's a long tradition of novels that

take place in a single day. Authors from James Joyce to Virginia Woolf have used that frame to tell a story.

In the new book, Orbital by Samantha Harvey, a single day has 16 sunrises and sunsets.

Her characters are astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Samantha Harvey, welcome to all things considered.

Hello, it's lovely to be here.

Have you always been interested in space?

I am not what you would probably call a space nerd by any stretch.

I've always been interested in the experience of astronauts, I think.

And when I was much younger, I collected quotes from astronauts.

I would sit in the library and go through books in pre-internet days and collect things that astronauts had said about being in space.

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