The Unfixed Stars

Clyde Tombaugh, the boy who will discover Pluto, is out in the farmyard grinding the lens for his own telescope under the immense Kansas sky. A thousand miles away in Flagstaff, Arizona, the staff of Lowell Observatory is preparing to resume its long-interrupted search for Planet X — if everyone can straighten out their romantic and financial tangles long enough to concentrate on their work. Meanwhile, the immensely rich heir to a chemical fortune has decided to come west to hunt for dinosaurs — and for God. And in Cambridge, the most beautiful girl in America is going slowly insane while her heavyweight champion boyfriend stands by helplessly, certain he is about to lose her, and desperate to do anything to keep her. Utterly mesmerising. This is a breathtaking, triumphant book. (The Times). The Unfixed Stars is ambitious in its scope, but to read it is to entrust yourself to a writer in seemingly complete control. (TLS). Think of the gin-and-jazz era of Scott Fitzgerald sent through the prism of a fine modern imagination. (Readers Digest).