In Ascension by MacInnes crowned Blackwell’s Book of the Year

Martin MacInnes’ In Ascension (Atlantic) has been chosen by booksellers as Blackwell’s Book of the Year 2023. The book had been shortlisted alongside Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard (Profile) and Pari Thomson’s debut Greenwild (Macmillan Children’s Books).

In Ascension tells the story of a scientist who studies ancient organisms across the world. "What she finds calls into question everything she knows," the synopsis says. "Writing with surgical accuracy about human emotion and frailty, MacInnes has created a novel that is simultaneously a deft and thrilling story about humanity’s place in the universe, an exploration of our individual fallibilities and a profound analysis of language and understanding."

The winning book impressed booksellers from across the UK. Yaniv from Blackwell’s Oxford described it as “a science fiction novel fit for the 21st century" adding that it was "beautifully written, balancing science, psychology and philosophy with a sense of wonder, and just enough ambiguity to keep you thinking about these big questions long after you finish reading it". Meanwhile, Calum from Blackwell’s Edinburgh described it as a “contact narrative with cinematic sweep that takes us on an odyssey from the depths of the ocean to the outer reaches of the cosmos with all the philosophical heft of Stanislaw Lem at his best.”

In Ascension was longlisted for the Booker Prize earlier this year and is the third novel by MacIness, who said: “Winning Blackwell’s Book of the Year outright, following writers like Daisy Johnson, Amia Srinivasan, and Rebecca Kuang, is just astonishing to me. It’s surreal and humbling, and I’m deeply grateful to the shopfloor booksellers, for voting for In Ascension of course, but also for their passion, expertise and creativity in the vital work they do with books every day. More people are going to read In Ascension because of this and I’m enormously fortunate, happy and still quite stunned.”