In Ascension: Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023 By Martin MacInnes

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes centres on Leigh, who grows up in Rotterdam and finds solace by the waterfront, away from an unhappy home and a volatile father. Her childhood fascination with the undersea world shapes her future, and she goes on to excel in marine biology, travelling widely to study ancient organisms.

A newly discovered trench in the Atlantic Ocean draws Leigh into an exploration team searching for evidence of the earth’s earliest life forms. What she encounters unsettles accepted ideas about human origins and takes her onwards to the Mojave Desert and an ambitious new space agency. As her involvement deepens, she learns the Atlantic trench is part of a wider set of related phenomena around the world, forming a pattern beyond human understanding. With her mother declining and her younger sister at home, Leigh faces a stark choice between family and a journey that reaches towards the cosmos.

Key details

• By Martin MacInnes
• Longlisted for The Booker Prize 2023
• Blackwell’s Book of the Year

Synopsis

Leigh’s work in marine biology leads from an early pull towards the sea to a major Atlantic expedition, where a newly identified trench appears to offer clues to the first life on earth. Instead, the discovery raises larger questions and draws her into a space agency investigating connected phenomena across the globe. As the pattern becomes clearer, she must weigh responsibilities at home against the demands of a far-reaching mission.