Circular Motion - by Alex Foster (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A brilliantly imagined literary debut of love, despair, and two people's search for belonging in a world literally spinning out of control

The acceleration of Earth's spin begins gradually. At first, days are just a few seconds shorter than normal. Awareness of the mysterious phenomenon hasn't reached Tanner, a young man preoccupied with dreams of escaping his tiny Alaskan hometown. One night, desperate to make his mark on the world, he runs away. He lands an unlikely job at CWC, the operator of a network of massive aircraft that orbit the Earth at 30,000 feet, revolutionizing global transportation. Now goods and people can travel anywhere in little more than an hour--you can visit Paris for an evening or order sushi from Japan. But just as Tanner settles into his new life and begins to consider if his feelings for a male colleague might be more than platonic, CWC is shaken by a wave of social unrest and protest.

That unrest sweeps up Winnie. A high school outcast in an era of street protests, wild parties, and online savagery, Winnie falls in with a group of teen activists who blame CWC for the planet's acceleration. As days on Earth quicken to twenty-three hours, then twenty, the sun rising and setting ever faster, causing violent storms and political meltdowns, Tanner and Winnie's stories spiral closer together. They meet cynical executives toiling to forestall the crises they created and religious zealots for whom the apocalypse can't come soon enough, lobbyists and lovers all coping in their own ways, and Victor Bickle--the self-aggrandizing TV scientist whose shameful secret will bind Tanner and Winnie's fates . . . if they can uncover it before the Earth spins so fast that even gravity might lose its grip.

Three-hour days. Two-hour days . . .

A propulsive exploration of capitalism, technology, and our place within a system that dwarfs us, Circular Motion is one of the most ingenious debut novels of our time.

Review Quotes

Praise for Circular Motion:

A Guardian Best Book of 2025
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

"A debut both wildly imaginative and deeply emotional . . . With shades of emotional planetary disaster novels like Karen Thompson Walker's "The Age of Miracles" and politically charged climate fiction like Stephen Markley's "The Deluge," Circular Motion comes from a writer capable of two things often misconstrued as counter to each other: deep, rich characters and elaborate, challenging ideas."--Jonathan Russell Clark, Washington Post

"Alex Foster's novel treats climate catastrophe through high-concept satire . . . It's a gonzo conceit, and Foster spells out the consequences, his richly rendered characters caught up in their own lives as the world spirals out of control . . . The increasing whirligig of the many strands of storytelling converge on their inevitable conclusion, with Foster's sparky writing, clever plotting and biting wit spinning an excellent tale."--Guardian

"Wonderful - maybe my top read of the year so far: disturbing, clever, beautifully written and, like all the best dystopias, it makes me even more grateful for the world I live in now . . . stunningly impressive."--Alison Flood, The New Scientist

"Impressive . . . The work of a writer with real talent. The prose is lively, too: vivid, full of lovely touches, and equally able to describe the large-scale disasters, thunderstorms, earthquakes, end-of-days big-screen doom, and the minutiae of ordinary living."--Adam Roberts, Guardian

"Foster keeps the novel balanced on a knife's edge between satire and realism, imagining compromises with day contraction that are both ridiculous and extremely plausible . . . If Foster doesn't fully give in to the satirical impulse, however, it is because he is too interested in his characters. In those people who, like us, are...affected by, and in some small ways, responsible for, the world's dissolution."--Locus

"An intense character study, Circular Motion's moody prose is entrenched in bottomless loneliness and emotional disrepair . . . In the pessimistic but thoughtful future-set novel Circular Motion, existential anxieties intermesh and explode as the sun rises and sets with increased frequency."--Foreword

"Most end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it novels draw on a short list of culprits: environmental crisis, asteroid strike, pandemic, nuclear war. So it's to Alex Foster's credit that in Circular Motion he's come up with something new . . . It's a fable for our times, with a moral about corporate responsibility and the need for concerted political action to address what are clear and present, not to mention hastening, threats... [Foster] shows impressive skill at world building and unbuilding in this well-paced adventure."--Alex Good, Toronto Star

"Foster combines climate-change parable and science fiction in his exciting debut . . . Foster shines in his condemnation of corporations and their eagerness to deflect attention away from their role in the climate crisis. Fans of gleeful and unflinching satire will find plenty to love."--Publishers Weekly

"An impressive debut. Foster is a writer of imaginative daring and narrative dexterity."--Jeffrey Eugenides

"Circular Motion is a gift: every paragraph offers something to make you think, laugh, feel, or simply look up from the page and sigh in awe or recognition."--Jonathan Safran Foer

"I'm a sucker for doomsday novels, but Circular Motion sucker-punched me right in the heart. Brilliantly written and utterly absorbing. Who needs gravity when Alex Foster keeps you absolutely grounded in his prose."--Gary Shteyngart

"Circular Motion is a deep investigation of how time is valued in contemporary society, while also being a deftly plotted page-turner. I read it in just a couple of sittings; time flew."--Vauhini Vara, author of The Immortal King Rao, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize

About the Author

Alex Foster received his MFA from New York University, where he served as fiction editor of Washington Square Review. He now edits books at Henry Holt and Company and Metropolitan. Previously, he studied economics at the University of Chicago and conducted research for the U.S. government and for the World Bank's Gender Innovation Lab in West Africa. Circular Motion is his first novel.