January 28, 1986: Soon after launch, the Challenger shuttle falls out of the sky and into the sea. At the same time, Oliver Ines is born. Celestial Lights is his story. A portrait of a complicated man and a tale of memory, personal choices, and the relationships that define us.
So well-trodden are narratives about space, hubris, and human ambition that one hardly expects to be surprised or delighted by yet another addition to the genre. But Cecile Pin’s modest yet deeply ambitious sophomore novel, Celestial Lights, somehow stands apart, weaving a tale as luminous as its title suggests.
