First published 2012
Sarah Halifax stands at eighty-seven, her mind sharp but her body failing. Thirty-eight years earlier, she cracked humanity's first alien radio transmission. Now a second message arrives from space, and Sarah knows she may be the only person who can decode it before death claims her. A wealthy industrialist proposes a solution: rollback technology that can restore youth to aging bodies. Sarah agrees, but only if her husband Don receives the treatment too. The procedure transforms Don into his twenty-five-year-old self, but Sarah's rollback fails completely. Don struggles with his restored youth while watching his wife remain trapped in her deteriorating body. The age gap between them widens into a chasm that threatens their sixty-year marriage. Meanwhile, Sarah races against time and her failing health to unlock the alien message's secrets. She works with desperate intensity, knowing each day could be her last chance to bridge the stars.
Genres: science-fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: against-the-clock, age-gap, race-against-time
Setting: Space
Period: Thirty-eight Years Ago, Present Day
320 pages · Paperback · Tor Books
Content warnings: terminal-illness