Atmosphere

They're the best of us, but they're still just people like us... Joan Goodwin's life was going on as usual: During the week she lectured at the university and spent weekends with her beloved niece Frances, who shared her passion for astronomy. So no one expected this unassuming and not very social young woman with a penchant for books and painting to take part in NASA's astronaut recruitment - and to succeed. Then came a layoff, a move, and rigorous training at the Johnson Space Center. Seven years later, Joan is the owner of a rare badge dedicated to those who have left our planet, and an important member of the flight team in charge of the Shuttle Navigator mission at the Control Center. Then, when a tragic accident causes events in Earth orbit to take a dramatic turn, it is she who is tasked with bringing home the crew members among whom she has found not only a new family, but also the love of her life... The bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six and Seven Husbands, Evelyn Hugo's ninth novel has earned her readers a Goodreads Choice Award in the historical fiction category. It tells an emotional story of female emancipation, friendship and ambition reaching beyond the earthly horizon. "A thrilling race against time coupled with a love story makes for a novel you can't put down." - Kirkus Reviews "Thrilling. heartbreaking. uplifting. the gripping and emotional story of an ambitious young woman, who is discovering her own voice and her own passion." - writer Kristin Hannah "Atmosphere is a novel about women, that wanted to prove the impossible, about the courage to go against convention and about love, that's being created there, where no one would expect her. Although the story takes place among astronauts, it touches on very earthly themes - ambition, loss, friendship and the longing for meaning." - from reader feedback on Databazeknih.cz "An emotional ride! If you are looking for a book, that will make you cry, then I can only recommend her." - from reader feedback on Databazeknih.cz "In Atmosphere, Jenkins Reid portrays society, who wants to send women to the stars, But at the same time, it puts them in the leaden shoes of traditional roles." - Die Presse am Sonntag "The author is not afraid of difficult subjects - drugs, Sadness, panic attacks, death of loved ones -, but always intertwined with tenderness and hope. The result is a novel that is as haunting as it is moving." - Bookseller magazine Astronomy is like history because the universe is time. And that's what she loved most about the universe. When you look up at the red star Antares in the southern sky, you are looking five and a half billion kilometres away. But you are also looking more than five hundred and fifty years into the past. Antares is so far away that its light takes five hundred and fifty years to reach your eye on Earth. Five hundred and fifty light years away. So when you look at the sky, the further you see, the deeper you look into the past. The space between you and the star is time. And yet most of the stars have been shining so long and so brightly in the sky that every human generation has been able to look up and see them. When you look up in the sky and see Antares with its reddish hue in the middle of the constellation Scorpio, you are looking at the same star that the Babylonians described in 1100 BC. n. l. When observing the night sky, one joins the countless people who have observed the same stars throughout human history. It's like seeing the passage of time. It made her knees buckle. - excerpt from the book