Homebound - by Portia Elan (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.

"A joy--at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries, and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human...It kept me up all night!" --Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and Song of Achilles

It's 1983 and Becks can't wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She's nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete--one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.

Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection--and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.

A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity's future and capacity for love.

Review Quotes

"Homebound's multiple narratives gloriously span centuries into the future to chart the voyages people take to find connection and community. Portia Elan's ingenious novel is a puzzle-story, a nostalgic ode to 80s video games and punk rock, and a speculative look into the ways technology has reshaped longing. You need to read it!"--Kevin Chong, Giller Prize-shortlisted author of The Double Life of Benson Yu

"A sparkling novel, a work of joyous and serious invention that moves fluidly between forms--text-based computer game, fablelistic tale, coming-of-age story, sea adventure--that is also profoundly attentive to the concept of home as something portable, created not by territory but by family (born and chosen), storytelling and solidarity."--Kaliane Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of The Ministry of Time

"Homebound is a joy--at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries, and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human. Inventive and gritty, powerful and clear-eyed, it kept me up all night!"--Madeline Miller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and The Song of Achilles

"Homebound is the most original and arresting novel I've read in a very long time. Elan has created a century-spanning epic that's also an utterly intimate story of love, loss, and found family. What a joy; what a marvel."--Anna North, author of Outlawed and Bog Queen

About the Author

Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to California, where she has worked as a teacher and public librarian. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel.