Celestial Lights - by Cecile Pin (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A coming-of-age tale inspired by Odysseus set both on Earth and in space, Celestial Lights is perfect for fans of Orbital and Normal People.

Oliver Ines is one of the most renowned astronauts of all time, having embarked on a mission further into the cosmos than anyone has ever been. Celestial Lights is his story. Born on January 28, 1986, at the same time the Challenger shuttle fell out of the sky and into the sea, it seems that his journey into space was almost preordained. His idyllic childhood in a small English village takes place against the backdrop of his bedroom's glow-in-the-dark wallpaper upon which planets and rocket ships shine brightly. During college and later a stint in the Navy, his fascination with the celestial sharpens into a focus often mistaken for aloofness. Still, he is able to make lasting bonds with a close friend and eventually a wife, a scientist, uncovering ways of life, with whom he is playful and tender. When an enterprising billionaire taps him to train to become an astronaut and later lead a mission to Europa, Oliver makes the choice to leave her and his loved ones behind.

Aboard his spacecraft, he is accompanied by only three crew members who mightily depend on each other. But as commander, he must once again hold himself apart. Oliver details the voyage in a private log, and unreachable by anyone on Earth, he mourns those he leaves behind, to a present that is happening without him, while dreaming of a future that can only happen because of him.

Celestial Lights is a portrait of a complicated man whose vision and unparalleled understanding of the universe don't always translate into stellar relationships on Earth. It explores the sacrifices required to achieve greatness--but more importantly, the idea that greatness is not always what it seems. This breathtaking tale which reveals how personal choices can send a world spinning, will make every reader lift their head to the night sky and marvel while also cherishing the connections that make our planet home.

Review Quotes

Past Praise for Cecile Pin

"Wandering Souls is more than a story of sacrifice and familial duty. The author has greater ambitions, first signaled in the intricate story structure she builds. . . . What emerges is something special--a polyvocal novel, an essay on inherited trauma and a quiet metafiction about telling stories we don't own."
--Eric Nguyen, New York Times Book Review

"Wandering Souls is immersive, creative and deeply emotional."
--Good Morning America

"The work of mothering often falls to those who are not mothers in the biological sense--a circumstance that's elegantly explored in Cecile Pin's Wandering Souls. . . . With compassion and clarity, Pin describes the ways a family cares for one another in the wake of life-altering tragedy."
--Time, "8 New Books to Read or Give This Mother's Day"

"Pin movingly explores how their lives are shaped--and warped--by larger historical forces, and then how these lost souls struggle to move through denial and into some tentative form of acceptance."
--Los Angeles Times

"Pin's prose is quietly powerful, her voice assured, her love for this fictional family apparent on every page."
--Star Tribune

About the Author

Cecile Pin grew up in Paris and New York City. She moved to London at eighteen to study philosophy at University College London and received an MA at King's College London. She is a 2021 London Writers Award winner. Wandering Souls, her first novel, was long-listed for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal, and the Prix Femina étranger.