Jeanette wakes up in the late afternoon and hurries outside to check for clouds in the sky. The observatory is surrounded by mountains and she finds herself disliking them for their perfection and unreality. The rocks are too jagged, the sky too uniformly blue, everything is too precise here. There are no distractions, no bushes or grass to blur the lines of the earth. No animals or birds to break the relentless silence. She wants to scuttle away and burrow under imaginary damp leaves and into forgiving earth. She longs for Edinburgh, with its uneven pavements and grubby shop fronts. She misses the unpainted windows of her flat, even the stains on the carpets. Shortcomings go unnoticed there. Here, everything stands out in sharp relief against the mountains.
Jeanette is a young, solitary post-doctoral researcher who has dedicated her life to studying astronomy. Struggling to compete in a prestigious university department dominated by egos and incompetents, and caught in a cycle of brief and unsatisfying affairs, she travels to a mountain-top observatory in Chile to focus on her research.
There she stumbles upon evidence that will challenge the fundamentals of the universe, drawing her into conflict with her colleagues and the scientific establishment, but also casting her back to the tragic loss that defined her childhood. As the implications of her discovery gather momentum, and her relationships spiral out of control, Jeanette’s own grip on reality is threatened, finally forcing her to confront the hidden past.
My debut novel The Falling Sky was runner-up in the Dundee International Book Prize 2012, and long-listed for the Polari First Book Prize 2014.
It was originally published by Freight Books but is currently out of print. The digital edition is available on Kindle. I do however still have a small number of hard copies; for enquiries please use the Contact Form.
Weiter als der Himmel is the German translation by Zoë Beck and it’s available as an ebook from CulturBooks.
Reviews#
“A delicate and fascinating study of a life in which intellect and external microscopic and cosmic fields interact.” Stephen Fry, Judge of the Dundee International Book Prize 2012.
“This is a fine debut from a writer with considerable scientific knowledge and experience, in addition to her abundant literary talent. The Falling Sky moves deftly between different aspects of the life of Jeanette, a junior astronomy researcher whose discovery upsets the power-play of her more senior colleagues. Through the back-story of her family tragedy, and the complications of her love life, we get a touching picture of a young woman trying to find her place in the universe.” Andrew Crumey, author of Mr Mee, Moebius Dick and Sputnik Caledonia.
“This novel is brilliant on several levels. Beautifully written, with many flashes of dark humour, it is fascinating… and is also a terrific portrayal of one woman"s struggle with past tragedy and present difficulties.” The Daily Mail.
“Pippa Goldschmidt has created a story of deeply moving humanity, dealing with our failures to understand fully the people that we are closest to – our family, our friends and our lovers. She writes in a style that will keep you reading, even when you know that you do not really understand the astronomical theories being written about.” Scottish Review of Books.
“Pippa Goldschmidt’s The Falling Sky is that rare thing: a literary novel that gets under the hood of science as a social enterprise, done by real and fallible people. It’s an extremely accomplished debut and the best evocation of the actual life of an astronomer I’ve ever read.” Alastair Reynolds at Arcfinity
“Lay readers and scientists alike will find Goldschmidt’s novel entertaining and will discover in Jeanette a thoroughly captivating and charming person, who will resonate in memory long after they have read the last page of the book.” Lablit.
“… a complex portrait, handsomely done…” New Scientist.