In Light-Years There's No Hurry

Cosmic Perspectives on Everyday Life

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Pub Date 20 Jun 2023 | Archive Date 31 May 2023

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Description

How seeing Earth through the eyes of an astronaut brings new wonder and meaning to life on our planet.

One stifling summer night, the poet and journalist Marjolijn van Heemstra lay awake, unable to sleep—like so many of us feeling anxious and alienated, deeply exhausted yet restless. Amid the suffocating stream of daily obligations, the clamor of notifications and increasingly dismal headlines, she longed for a way to rise above the frenzy, for a renewed sense of meaning and connection. Then she learned about the overview effect—a permanent shift in consciousness many astronauts experience when beholding Earth from outside the atmosphere—and wondered: could the perspective of outer space offer the internal space she sought?

The lyrical account of van Heemstra’s yearlong quest to experience the overview effect on Earth, In Light-Years There’s No Hurry invites us to lift our gaze above eye level and discover our connections with the cosmos, our planet, and each other. We follow as van Heemstra’s cosmic awareness expands and she finds herself feeling simultaneously lighter and more grounded. Compared with the complexity of the universe, daily life on Earth begins to seem more manageable, while understanding the improbability of our collective existence gives her new patience and tenderness for her neighbors. The grand rhythms of light-years and eons become a source of restoration and relief—a comforting, necessary reminder to slow down and zoom out.

Contemplating the solace a cosmic perspective offers in our chaotic, divided world, In Light-Years There’s No Hurry is a moving meditation on what it is to be human amid the vastness of the universe.

About the Author: Marjolijn van Heemstra is a poet, novelist, playwright, and space reporter for the Dutch news organization De Correspondent. The award-winning author of three collections of poetry and a novel, van Heemstra lives in Amsterdam.

Translated by Jonathan Reeder.

How seeing Earth through the eyes of an astronaut brings new wonder and meaning to life on our planet.

One stifling summer night, the poet and journalist Marjolijn van Heemstra lay awake, unable to...


Advance Praise

"This starstruck enquiry into the grand universe around us will leave you both humbled and awed." - Katherine May, New York Times best-selling author of Wintering and Enchantment

"A lovely, lyrical book about the search for signs of life in these perilous times. Van Heemstra gracefully illuminates the difficulties and delights of connection in our increasingly chaotic world." - Jenny Offill, author of Weather and Dept. of Speculation

"Beautifully written and deeply contemplative… In Light-Years There’s No Hurry offers a surprising connection between space science and the human spirit." - Alan Lightman, author of Probable Impossibilities and Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine

"Informative, thought-provoking, and inspiring…This book will renew your faith in living with kindness, seeking interconnection, and loving—and protecting—the wonders of this world we are so lucky to know." - Paul Bogard, author of The End of Night

"Marjolijn van Heemstra’s radiant intellect makes the cold, dark cosmos feel like a warm, well-lit place. Somehow, she has written a book on the emptiness of space that is suffused with a rich sense of humanity." - Marcia Bjornerud, author of Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

"This starstruck enquiry into the grand universe around us will leave you both humbled and awed." - Katherine May, New York Times best-selling author of Wintering and Enchantment

"A lovely, lyrical...


Available Editions

EDITION Hardcover
ISBN 9781324035695
PRICE $26.00 (USD)
PAGES 160

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