Cecile Pin - Celestial Lights | Wednesday 1 July, 7.30pm

After being longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction with her debut novel Wandering Souls, Cecile Pin returns to Collected with a beautiful and heart-breaking story of ambition, love and space. Celestial Lights is one of Emma's favourites of 2026 so far, an exceptional book - gripping, moving, and challenging in all the best ways. The central question is what do we owe our loved ones and what do we owe ourselves when our ambitions and our loyalties conflict - but writ very large. Homer's Odyssey for the 21st century - and in space! Complex, sad, and very, very hard to put down.

Celestial Lights is out now. Order your copy here.

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28 January, 1986: Moments after launch, the Challenger shuttle falls from the sky. At the same time, in a small English village, Oliver Ines is born.

Ollie spends his childhood in a bedroom covered in glow-in-the-dark wallpaper, bearing the planets and stars. Decades later, he has become one of the most renowned astronauts of his time. When an enterprising billionaire approaches him to lead a landmark, ten-year mission to the distant moon Europa, Ollie cannot resist the call of history. As the mission advances deeper into uncharted territory, Ollie finds himself retreating into the past: his school days and years in the Navy, relationships found and lost, becoming a husband and father. But will the world he remembers still be waiting for him when he returns?