In Ascension

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE

An astonishing novel about a young microbiologistinvestigating an unfathomable deep vent in the ocean floor, leading her on ajourney that will encompass the full trajectory of the cosmos and the passageof a single human life

Leigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as anescape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by theundersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, travelling theglobe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlanticocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth'sfirst life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything weknow about our own beginnings.

Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new spaceagency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantictrench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, eachpiece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knowsthat to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her decliningmother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible to remain withher family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.

Exploring the natural world with the wonder and reverence we usually reservefor the stars, In Ascension is a compassionate, deeply inquisitiveepic that reaches outward to confront the greatest questions of existence,looks inward to illuminate the smallest details of the human heart, and showshow - no matter how far away we might be and how much we have lost hope - wewill always attempt to return to the people and places we call home.