Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel: ’A story of impossible things made possible’

I wasn’t sure about reading Aja Gabel’s Lightbreakers: the premise was attractive, but the blurb suggested elements of SF/Fantasy that I might have trouble with, more my understanding than anything else. It follows Noah who’s been invited to take part in what is essentially a time travel experiment funded by a billionaire, and his wife, Maya, stalled in her art and lacking direction, who accompanies him out into the Texan desert.

On the couch, with Maya three sips into her wine and his untouched, he told her about Klein Michaels, the invisible clock, and a person he used to be, years before she knew him.

When Noah and Maya arrive in their new home, she’s struck by the similarity to the Los Angeles house he shared with his ex-wife, Eileen, she seen in photographs. Noah seems blithely unaware, too caught up in this experiment ostensibly based on the paper which scuppered his career as a physicist. Noah met Maya at a lecture she’d given on a Japanese photographer, attracted by her passion for her subject. Together for eight years and married for five, they’ve reached a stage where a decision must be made about having children, complicated by the loss of Noah’s daughter with Eileen and the grief that split them apart. Once inducted into the Janus Project, it becomes clear that Noah is to be the subject rather than involved in its design, the human lab rat to be ‘folded’ into time. Inevitably, he succumbs to the temptation to revisit his own past, longing to see his daughter again. Maya has her own past to resolve, a relationship broken by ambition. Noah’s involvement of Eileen leads to a discovery that sheds a more sinister light on the motivation behind the project.

Tell me what you remember. We’ll see if it’s what I remember. 

Shifting perspectives between Noah, Maya, and Eileen, Gabel explores themes of love, loss, grief and memory in a what I’d describe as more a philosophical novel than SF maybe because I’ve not read much of the latter. There’s quite a lot of physics which I had to take on trust but my ignorance didn’t interfere with my enjoyment of this often poignant, sometimes wrenching, perceptive piece of fiction which poses questions about our versions of the past, our longing to revisit those we’ve loved and lost, and the danger of not letting go while making the timely point that the desire of the ultra-rich to play God is a pernicious one. It’s an immersive novel, rich in ideas and humanity, thoughtful and thought-provoking. There was a moment when I thought that it might have taken a wrong turn but Gabel neatly wraps up her storyline while leaving her readers with lots to ponder. Adding her debut, Ensemble, to my list.

Fleet: London 9780349725437 352 pages Hardback (read via NetGalley)