I do not usually enjoy books marketed as science fiction novels or books in which nothing happens or books that are rendered with beautiful and lyrical writing and this one was marketed as and is all of those things. And I loved this book. I would not have picked it up except it won the Booker Prize and in my curiosity I read a description of it including a portion quoted from the book that described the earth. Well that hooked me and I was not disappointed. In this book six astronauts from different countries live together in a space station. The book takes place in one day which comprises 16 orbits of the earth. In that day the astronauts interact with each other and live their lives on the space station eating, conducting experiments, riding exercise equipment to keep their muscles from atrophying. They also think about their homes and families and reflect on love, life, loss, family, and community. One astronaut uses a postcard of  Velazquez’s painting Las Meninas to think about his wife (who gave him the postcard) and also about what one sees and how one looks at paintings - or any object or part of nature. The descriptions of earth as the space ship orbits are indeed lyrical and beautiful and honestly are worth reading the entire book just to read and ponder.