Waterstones Book Group to discuss The Secret History and Orbital

Avid readers can share stories when they join a book group at the Reading branch of Waterstones. 

Meeting from 7pm at the Broad Street-based bookshop, the group will discuss Samantha Harvey’s Orbital and Donna Tartt’s The Secret History.

What is Samantha Harvey’s Orbital about?

Orbital is a 2023 novel by English writer Samantha Harvey that incorporates elements of science fiction, literary fiction, and philosophical drama.

The story follows six astronauts and cosmonauts from Japan, the United States, Britain, Italy, and Russia, four men and two women, aboard the International Space Station as they orbit Earth. 

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In addition to detailing the official duties and tasks of the astronauts aboard the spacecraft, the novel also features their reflections about humanity and subjects including the existence or nature of God, the meaning of life, and existential threats such as climate change. 

Each chapter of the novel covers a single 90-minute orbit around Earth, with 16 orbits in the 24 hours.

Donna Tartt’s The Secret History

The Secret History is the first novel by the American author Donna Tartt, published by Alfred A. Knopf in September 1992. The campus novel tells the story of a closely knit group of six classics students at Hampden College, a small, elite liberal arts college in Vermont.

It is  an inverted detective story narrated by one of the six students, Richard Papen, who reflects years later upon the situation that led to the murder of their friend Edmund “Bunny” Corcoran – wherein the events leading up to the murder are revealed sequentially.

The novel explores the circumstances and lasting effects of Bunny’s death on the academically and socially isolated group of classics students of which he was a part.

Set in the 1980s, it has become a modern classic. 

When is Waterstones Book Group meeting in Reading?

The event runs from 7pm for an hour on Wednesday, January 29. 

Places are free, but should be booked in advance. 

Organisers say: “Join us for a relaxed and friendly discussion of paperback titles, chosen by the group – usually fiction but with occasional non fiction as well.”

For more details, log on to: https://www.waterstones.com/events/january-book-club/reading-broad-street-134089

Alternatively, send an email to reading@waterstones.com, call the store on 0118 958 1270 or come and see the staff in the shop.