{"product_id":"in-ascension-9780802163462","title":"In Ascension","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 BOOKER PRIZE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn astonishing novel about a young microbiologist investigating an unfathomable deep vent in the ocean floor, leading her on a journey that will encompass the full trajectory of the cosmos and the passage of a single human life\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLeigh grew up in Rotterdam, drawn to the waterfront as an escape from her unhappy home life and volatile father. Enchanted by the undersea world of her childhood, she excels in marine biology, traveling the globe to study ancient organisms. When a trench is discovered in the Atlantic ocean, Leigh joins the exploration team, hoping to find evidence of the earth's first life forms - what she instead finds calls into question everything we know about our own beginnings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Her discovery leads Leigh to the Mojave desert and an ambitious new space agency. Drawn deeper into the agency's work, she learns that the Atlantic trench is only one of several related phenomena from across the world, each piece linking up to suggest a pattern beyond human understanding. Leigh knows that to continue working with the agency will mean leaving behind her declining mother and her younger sister, and faces an impossible choice: to remain with her family, or to embark on a journey across the breadth of the cosmos.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e Exploring the natural world with the wonder and reverence we usually reserve for the stars, \u003ci\u003eIn Ascension\u003c\/i\u003e is a compassionate, deeply inquisitive epic that reaches outward to confront the greatest questions of existence, looks inward to illuminate the smallest details of the human heart, and shows how - no matter how far away we might be and how much we have lost hope - we will always attempt to return to the people and places we call home.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMartin MacInnes lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. His debut\u003cbr\u003enovel, \u003ci\u003eInfinite Ground \u003c\/i\u003e(2016), won the Somerset Maugham Award. His second\u003cbr\u003enovel, \u003ci\u003eGathering Evidence\u003c\/i\u003e (2020), led to his inclusion in The National Centre\u003cbr\u003efor Writing\/British Council's list of ten writers shaping the UK's future. His\u003cbr\u003ethird novel, In Ascension, was published in February 2023.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Grove Press, Black Cat","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50573150257426,"sku":"9780802163462","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_f5c869ee-2207-4675-aad7-a3ee9ce8bf97.jpg?v=1731969556","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/in-ascension-9780802163462","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}