AN EPIC NOVEL SET AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE 1980S SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAMME ABOUT THE EXTRAORDINARY LENGTHS WE GO TO LIVE AND LOVE BEYOND OUR LIMITS.
In the summer of 1980, astrophysics professor Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston’s Johnson Space Center, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond; mission specialists John Griffin and Lydia Danes; warmhearted Donna Fitzgerald; and Vanessa Ford, the magnetic and mysterious aeronautical engineer. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe.
Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.

Atmosphere is a book set against the 1980s Space Shuttle programme. It is about space and NASA but it is also about our Earth in every other possible way – not just something to escape but something to come home to. It’s about the relationships between each of the people on the programme and also those around them. It’s about life, death, love, friendship, family and everything in between. It’s about a woman in a world dominated by men, and how that felt in the 1980s.

The backdrop feels so detailed that by the end you feel as though you could almost be there with the characters. The writing is captivating – perhaps not for me personally in quite the same way I found other TJR books – but is still more and more compelling as each page is turned. By the time I had reached the final few sentences, I had tears streaming down my face and felt like my heart could break for these women. I loved how much ground we covered in this book – it was complex and beautiful and I just adored Joan and Vanessa. I found myself thinking about it when I wasn’t reading it, and feel as though I miss it, now it is over.

★★★★★
5 out of 5 stars

-Beth

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