Homebound - Outside of a Dog

Hardcover, 293 pages

Published by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-1-6682-0173-2

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

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 …

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

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.

1 edition

benwerd@bookwyrm.social reviewed Homebound by Portia Elan

I struggled to connect

3 stars

Ironically for a book about connectedness, I didn't connect to this as much as I'd hoped; aside from the 1983 storyline, which I was deeply engaged by, the characters felt distant. It really comes into its own in the second half, when the link with the central game becomes more emotionally concrete - I wish that hook had been there from the beginning. The ideas are wonderful, the writing is brilliant, but the spark didn't land for me. Other readers have loved this, so I'm sure it's on me more than the author or the book itself.