LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER • An MIT astrophysicist reinvents herself in the wake of tragedy and discovers the power of connection on this planet, even as she searches our galaxy for another Earth, in this “bewitching” (Anthony Doerr, The New York Times Book Review) memoir.“Sara Seager’s exploration of outer and inner space makes for a stunningly original memoir.”—Abraham Verghese, author … stunningly original memoir.”—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
Sara Seager has always been in love with the stars: so many lights in the sky, so much possibility. Now a pioneering planetary scientist, she searches for exoplanets—especially that distant, elusive world that sustains life. But with the unexpected death of Seager’s husband, the purpose of her own life becomes hard for her to see. Suddenly, at forty, she is a widow and the single mother of two young boys. For the first time, she feels alone in the universe.
As she struggles to navigate her life after loss, Seager takes solace in the alien beauty of exoplanets and the technical challenges of exploration. At the same time, she discovers earthbound connections that feel every bit as wondrous, when strangers and loved ones alike reach out to her across the space of her grief. Among them are the Widows of Concord, a group of women offering advice on everything from home maintenance to dating, and her beloved sons, Max and Alex. Most unexpected of all, there is another kind of one-in-a-billion match, not in the stars but here at home.
Probing and invigoratingly honest, The Smallest Lights in the Universe is its own kind of light in the dark.
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Well written and moving. You could feel the love she has for her children and her second husband, more so than her first, late husband, who was the father of her children. I receive many press releases from MIT at work, I will look at them differently from now on.
Read this book in one weekend, found it difficult to put down! Sara Seager is such an interesting human – so genuine in her self-reflection. A genius astrophysicist, a young mother and widow – she has a knack for seamlessly taking us back and forth between the layers of her life as she learns her way forward in life. This memoir is a quiet, stunning achievement.
This memoir will touch something in everyone. I enjoyed reading about how the stars helped Sara process the grief at the death of her husband. Yes, there is a lot of information about the stars and other universe but this is how Sara was able to understand the tragedy that befell her family. We are all searching for something and it is amazing when you realize what it is. This is a memoir that is more than dealing with grief, it is about knowing who you are and appreciating live moments.
I received this book from NetGalley and the opinions expressed are entirely my own.
The author of The Smallest Lights in the Universe: A Memoir, Sara Seager, is a pioneering astrophysicist and a professor at MIT. She also led NASA’s Probe Study team for the Starshade project and earned a MacArthur grant. Since childhood she’s loved astronomy and the possibilities that lie beyond our own planet. She’s always been a socially awkward loner. She is on the autism spectrum but isn’t diagnosed until adulthood.
As a child, her life balanced between two extremes. Through the week she lived in a dysfunctional family that included a stepfather she called “the monster”—whose vicious mood swings kept her on tenterhooks—and an enabling mother. Sara spent weekends with her father, a physician who understood and cared for her.
As Sara moves through college, she meets her first husband—another loner—named Mike. They blend because they feel comfortable being alone together. They share the same love of sports and Canada’s wide-open spaces. They marry and have two sons. Mike assumes the stay-at-home parent role, working as an editor, to allow Sara time to search for the stars. Suddenly, he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and they are forced to deal with his impending death, chemotherapy, and preparing their sons for a life without their dad. Sara finds herself a widow and single mom at age forty and must pick up the pieces of their shattered life and learn to deal with home repairs, car repairs, and the other flotsam and jetsam Mike dealt with.
This memoir is a luminous look at how this successful professional reinvents herself after this loss. She moves from being a loner to “collecting” people who provide support for herself and her family as they adjust to live without Mike. Among these are a group of women, the Widows of Concord, who take Sara in and offer emotional support and advice on the above mentioned home repairs, dating, letting go of the lost loved one, and preparing to let a new love into her life. Along the way, Sara—like all working mothers—must learn to balance work and home life.
A lovely, deeply emotional memoir—I sniffled through parts of it—by an astrophysicist who love for the stars provides a glue that holds her life together.
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book.