I have long wanted a novel about the mundanity of space lab tasks, and finally I have it. The whole book is beautifully crafted, and some passages really swept me away, although I have terrible memory and won’t try replicate them here. It felt very appropriate for an End of Year book, a time for dwelling on our relationship with the earth - sociologically and ecologically. I read some passages aloud to my mum while we were on holiday together this weekend, and she fixated on the message that borders cannot be seen from space, and bought herself a Xmas jumper that says CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF A BROWN UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT.