(Fiction, 304 pp., 2026)
Can a computer game become a map for surviving grief? This novel redefines home not as a place, but as the crew we choose. The story moves between 1983 Cincinnati, where teenager Becks Meir grieves her beloved Uncle Ben by learning to finish his unfinished text-adventure game; the late twenty-first century, where ecobiologist Tamar Portman nurtures a sentient robot into consciousness; and 2586, where the hardened sea captain Yesiko scavenges a flooded world with only an elderly storyteller and a mysterious robotic companion. These three lives, separated by centuries, are stitched together by code, story, and the stubborn human need for connection. Clear-eyed and compassionate, Homebound imagines how future generations will make meaning and forge relationships through their inheritance from the past: stories, memory, ritual, and most of all, hope.
Reading Group Guide from the author’s website
Starred Review by Neal Wyatt, Library Journal, March 2026
Starred Review by Kirkus Staff, Kirkus Reviews, May 2026
Starred Review by PW Staff, Publishers Weekly, May 2026
Review by Beejay Silcox, The Guardian, May 2026
Review by Zoe McKenna, The British Columbia Review, May 2026
Review by Sara Polsky, The Brooklyn Rail, May 2026
Interview with Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle, May 2026
Interview with Scott Detrow on “All Things Considered,” National Public Radio, May 8 2026 (audio and transcript)
Interview on “Good Morning America,” ABC News, May 6 2026 (video, 3 min)
