Interesting Facts about Space by Emily Austin
From Emily Austin, the bestselling author of Everyone in this Room Will Someday Be Dead comes a soul-searching novel about the complexities of family and relationships.
We follow Enid, a twenty-six year old woman obsessed with space and true crime podcasts. When she’s not working at the Space Agency, she spends her time cycling through a rotation of women she meets on dating apps, calming her mind with stories of serial killers, and avoiding the thing she fears the most – bald men.
All while coping with the death of her absent father, forging a relationship with her estranged half sisters, and caring for her mother, Enid becomes convinced that someone is stalking her and breaking into her apartment. There’s a possibility it could be her new neighbour, who happens to be a bald man. Her paranoia is spiraling which leads her to therapy where she is forced to confront her true self.
With time, Enid opens herself up to the possibility of love, and with the help of her mother and best friend, she manages to stay firmly rooted on planet earth.
In the vein of Austin's debut, Interesting Facts about Space is filled with same wonderful humour and charm. It's lighthearted, comforting, and most of all, it made me feel less alone.
Emily Austin is the author of Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead, Interesting Facts About Space, and the poetry collection Gay Girl Prayers. She was born in Ontario, Canada, and received two writing grants from the Canadian Council for the Arts. She studied English literature and library science at Western University. She currently lives in Ottawa, in the territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation.