The Actual Star: A Novel

Author(s): Monica Byrne

Science Fiction

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas meets Octavia Butler's Earthseed series, as acclaimed author Monica Byrne (The Girl in the Road) spins a brilliant multigenerational saga spanning two thousand years, from the collapse of the ancient Maya to a far-future utopia on the brink of civil war.


The Actual Star takes readers on a journey over two millennia and six continents --telling three powerful tales a thousand years apart, all of them converging in the same cave in the Belizean jungle.


Braided together are the stories of a pair of teenage twins who ascend the throne ofa Maya kingdom; a young American woman on a trip of self-discovery in Belize; and two dangerous charismatics vying for the leadership of a new religion and racing toward a confrontation that will determine the fate of the few humans left on Earth after massive climate change.


In each era, a reincarnated trinity of souls navigates the entanglements of tradition and progress, sister and stranger, and love and hate--until all of their age-old questions about the nature of existence converge deep underground, where only in complete darkness can they truly see.


The Actual Star is a feast of ideas about where humanity came from, where we are now, and where we're going--and how, in every age, the same forces that drive us apart also bind us together.


Product Information

General Fields

  • : 9780063002890
  • : HarperCollins Publishers
  • : Harper Voyager
  • : 45359200.0
  • : 30 November 2021
  • : {"length"=>["9"], "width"=>["6"], "units"=>["Inches"]}
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Monica Byrne
  • : Hardback
  • : English
  • : 813.6
  • : 624