Singer Distance
In response to a message carved into the Tunisian desert in 1894, Martians began communicating with Earth. At first, the questions were simple equations, spelled out in glowing blue symbols on Mars’ surface, but the messages have gotten increasingly harder. The last query posed has taken almost thirty years to solve. Finally, in 1960, MIT student Crystal Singer thinks she has solved it and enlists the help of four of her classmates to journey to Arizona to paint a message in the desert.
One of the students is her boyfriend, Rick, who, despite being a math major, doesn’t understand Crystal’s message, but his faith in her leads him to plan and fund the trip. He isn’t surprised that she has indeed cracked it, causing the Martians to respond. Her discovery brings the group instant fame, and they are suddenly bombarded with media requests and hounded by curious people worldwide. Unable to take the pressure, Crystal goes into hiding, infrequently communicating with anyone, including Rick. But he never stops loving her or loses his belief in her ability to solve the next equation.
Chatagnier’s debut novel is a beautiful musing on science and philosophy and how to measure physical and emotional distance. Unique and fresh characters with detailed backstories fill the pages, including the heartbreaking account of the scientist who engaged a generation, including Crystal and Rick, but crumbled under the massive pressure to respond to Mars. A work of fiction with so much scientific theory could easily get tedious and overly complicated, but the focus on the emotional heartbeat of the story keeps the reader drawn in. Don’t worry if you don’t understand all of the scientific details; most of the characters don’t, either. An absorbing book that though set in the 1960s, feels surprisingly timeless.
