Homebound - A Novel

By: Portia Elan

Published by Scribner, 2026-05-05

<b>Five interlocking lives. One beloved story. A dazzling adventure across centuries and continents in search of the things that hold us together.</b><br> <br><b>“A joy—at once a gripping mystery that confidently spans centuries, and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human...It kept me up all night!” —Madeline Miller, #1 <i>New York Times </i>bestselling author of <i>Circe </i>and <i>Song of Achilles</i> </b><br><br>It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. She’s nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, the only person who understood her, is dead. But she has work to do: he left her a half-finished game to complete—one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness.<br> <br> Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton, and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. All are bound together by their search for connection—and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space.<br> <br> A novel about our deep interconnectedness, <i>Homebound </i>is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity’s future and capacity for love.