CELESTIAL LIGHTS

“Earth is now a pale blue smudge,” writes Commander Oliver Ines from aboard the Talos. Growing up in a small English village, where he had celestial wallpaper in his bedroom, Ollie had no idea he would grow up to become one of the most famous astronauts of all time. As he floats through space with his three crew members, Ollie thinks back on everything that led him here. He remembers his idyllic yet suffocating childhood, especially one summer he spent with Philly, his neighbor’s strange but lovely niece. There were the years he spent excelling academically—not socially—in London, and then his wildly successful though unfulfilling Royal Navy career. And, finally, his relationship with Philly, as they reconnect, fall in love, and create a family together, serves as the emotional through line. When Ollie is approached by a charismatic, controlling, and controversial billionaire, given the opportunity to train as an astronaut and take a one-of-a-kind mission to Europa to find out if there’s life beneath its glittering surface, he must make a life-changing decision: Will he continue to chase greatness and glory even if it means leaving his loved ones behind for more than a decade? During one trip back to his village, Ollie thinks, “Time can distort events, but it can just as well bend them back into shape.” As he gets closer to Europa and further from his loved ones, Ollie’s life—and his potential legacy—begin to come into sharper focus. As the novel boomerangs between memories and the mission, it becomes clear how much has been sacrificed—and the ways that ambition can equally propel and poison one’s life. Pin’s perfectly melancholy prose offers a sweeping yet grounded portrait of a man whose aspiration becomes the guiding principle of his life. The novel beautifully explores loneliness, memory, belonging, grief, and the cost of chasing one’s dreams.