Homebound by Portia Elan

One computer game. And the many paths that can lead us home. 1983: a grieving teenager is left a game to complete.

2083: a scientist makes a radical discovery about the human spirit. 2586: a sea captain navigates the perils of a flooded world. Meanwhile: an astronaut is on a rescue mission in deep space.

How do they connect? The puzzle leads back to that teenager. What she is coding will outlast her by centuries, but it will shape the lives of these four pioneering women across centuries, vast oceans and far-distant planets. It will also introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew.

Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, grief, storytelling, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.