Homebound
Six hundred years. Five interlocking lives. One computer game. And the many paths that can lead us home.
It’s 1983 and Becks can’t wait to get the hell out of Cincinnati. In the meantime, she has work to her uncle, the only person who understood her, has left her a half-finished game to complete.
What Becks is coding will outlast her by centuries and shape the lives of a scientist, an astronaut and a desperate sea captain in ways she cannot imagine. It will connect these four pioneering women across time, vast oceans and far-distant planets and introduce them to a remarkable robot destined to gather together this disparate crew and bring them home.
Homebound is a coming out and coming-of-age story, a wild and precarious sea adventure, a space odyssey. As it slips through time, loss, creativity, found family, it journeys deep into humanity’s future and capacity for love.
Additional information
| Classification | Fiction |
|---|---|
| Genre | Literary Fiction, Science Fiction |
| Age | Adult |
| Publisher | Independent |
| Imprint | Scribner |
| Language(s) | TBD |
| Format(s) | Hardcover |
| Author | Portia Elan |
| Release Date | 5-May-26 |
| Release Month | May Releases |
| Author Identity | Jewish, LGBTQIA+ |
| Content Rep | Jewish, LGBTQIA+ |
About the Author
Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria before returning to California, where she has worked as a waitress, bookseller, teacher, and public librarian. She was a 2016 Lambda Literary Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats.

