The Wanderers
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
As they look to the stars, what are they missing back home?
'Phenomenal. A transcendent journey into the mysteries of space and self. Howrey's expansive vision left me awestruck' RUTH OZEKI, author of A Tale for the Time Being
Helen Kane may not be the best mother in the world, but she is one of the world's best astronauts and when, at fifty-three, she's offered a chance to train for the first crewed mission to Mars, she doesn't hesitate.
She and her fellow astronauts Sergei and Yoshihiro will be confined in a desert facility, striving to prove themselves, while outside their loved ones – Helen’s actress daughter, Sergei’s teenage son, and Yoshi's lonely businesswoman wife Madoka – pursue complex explorations of their own. All six will find themselves confronting the bonds of love and loyalty, sacrifice and desire. Station Eleven meets We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves in this brilliantly witty and inventive novel of ambition, endeavour and family.
'An astounding, insightful, exhilarating ride' HELEN SEDGWICK, author of The Comet Seekers
'A stealthily brilliant novel. A distinct, shimmering vision of who we are ... at once simple, gorgeous and profoundly moving' PETER NICHOLS, author of The Rocks
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This assiduously researched and authentic novel follows three astronauts training for the first manned mission to Mars. However, it’s more concerned with what lies within than what lies beyond. Meg Howrey is thoughtful, witty and moving as she examines the psychological tug of war between personal ambition and familial bonds that occurs when securing your legacy means leaving loved ones behind. Relationships warp and psyches transform as the mysteries of the human spirit are revealed to be as deep and complex as the mysteries of space.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Three astronauts and those who know them best explore the limits of truth and love in Howrey's (Blind Sight) genre-bending novel. Helen Kane, Sergei Kuznetsov, and Yoshihiro Tanaka are the perfect crew for the first mission to Mars: elite explorers and engineers, they're more at home in microgravity than with their families. But even years of training can't fully prepare them for Eidolon, a highly-engineered 17-month-long simulation. Beyond the physical and emotional stress for the crew members, their prolonged isolation will also test their families. The story's multiple points of view don't confuse the intensely introspective narrative; instead they create perspective and distance three planetary bodies and their satellites observing themselves, and each other. The voices are distinct, each member reviewing and acting on his or her own emotional telemetry with equal parts brilliance and blunder, and the stakes are high, with any heartbeat capable of tipping the scales against the crew's survival. But the longer the mission runs, the longer the three are kept in isolation, the more they question the stories they choose to tell their handlers, their families, each other, and themselves and the more they question the stories they are being told. With these believably fragile and idealistic characters at the helm, Howrey's insightful novel will take readers to a place where they too can "lift their heads and wonder."
