In this novel of friendship and hard-won hope, four lives are entangled across time by one story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s...

In this novel of friendship and hard-won hope, four lives are entangled across time by one story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries.

"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 New York Times bestselling author of Circe and Song of Achilles

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.

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.

A novel about our deep interconnectedness, Homebound is a clear-eyed, hopeful adventure into humanity's future and capacity for love.

Author: Portia Elan
Publisher: Scribner Book Company
Published: 05/05/2026
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.19lbs
Size: 9.07h x 5.92w x 1.27d
ISBN: 9781668201732


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/13/2026
Library Journal 03/01/2026 pg. 89
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2026
Booklist 04/01/2026
Shelf Awareness 10/21/2025

About the Author
Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria, British Columbia, before returning to California, where she has worked as a teacher and public librarian. A former Lambda Literary Fellow, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound is her first novel.