Circular Motion

Foster combines climate-change parable and science fiction in his exciting debut, in which Earth’s rotation gradually speeds up. Tanner Kelly, a 20-year-old looking to escape small-town Alaska, reaches out to Victor Bickle, an engineer who grew up in the same small town. Victor offers Tanner a job as his assistant at Circumglobal Westward Circuit Group (CWC), operator of a rapid air travel program (flights from the U.S. to Europe only take an hour), which some are blaming for the world’s gradually shortening days. Meanwhile, 15-year-old loner Winnie Pines, who hails from the same Alaskan town as Tanner and Victor and now lives in San Francisco, joins a group of protesters bemoaning CWC’s lack of service to rural and remote communities. As the novel progresses, a hurricane strikes San Francisco, buildings all over the planet start to tilt toward the equator, and Tanner and Winnie eventually cross paths. While the premise is similar to Karen Thompson Walker’s The Age of Miracles, Foster shines in his condemnation of corporations and their eagerness to deflect attention away from their role in the climate crisis. Fans of gleeful and unflinching satire will find plenty to love. Agent: Dan Kirschen, CAA. (May)