Range

In this mesmerizing novel, an astrophysicist searches for her place among her neighbors and in the universe

 

Gunn Haven, professor of astrophysics, has taken a partial leave from the Institute where she teaches and moved to a rural area. She’s here for the clear night sky and for solitude as she tracks gamma-rays bursts and researches the origins of the universe.

But while Gunn studies celestial bodies, she is also contending with the movement of earthly bodies. There are her nearest neighbors: Brit, who cuts everyone’s hair and wants to know everyone’s business, and Jenny, Brit’s restless teenage daughter. There is her young protégé; Gunn has sent him away to find his own path, yet longs to have him close. There are remote colleagues and dead loved ones, often in her thoughts. And there is the menacing Gable Woman, who, after catching the Professor wandering onto private property, is intent on putting her in her place.

How to navigate the humanmade boundaries of a boundless universe? How to be a caretaker if you’re not a mother and stand apart from the community? Gunn’s inquisitive mind ranges over these questions as she splits firewood, walks the forest, solves formulas, sits in shooting stands, lies in fields, sips coffee, and observes—the animals, the locals, the seasons, the stars, her memories. Reaching from the everyday to the infinite, from sensory details to contemplations of the cosmos, Range is a gripping investigation of the many kinds of distance we cross through space and time.