Saturday Guardian
'Ascent is storytelling of a high calibre, fully imagined, finely
crafted.'
crafted.'
Angela Cooke, Daily Express
"Ascent is a page turning story of a man's ambition to be the very
best. Based on real events and using real people, it places this fictitious
character in a period when space itself was there for the taking.
Beautifully written, it's a book that deserves to be read"
best. Based on real events and using real people, it places this fictitious
character in a period when space itself was there for the taking.
Beautifully written, it's a book that deserves to be read"
rev'd by Alastair Sooke, Sunday Telegraph
`Mecurio captures a sense of hurtling velocity - which, in prose, is no
mean feat.'
mean feat.'
Independent
"Tremendous stuff"
GQ
"prose of almost inconsolable starkness.. a great read"
City AM
"a stylish, cool novel"
Kate Saunders, The Times
`This is exciting, pacey, sometimes brutal, often funny'
Tancred Newbury,Observer
`Mercurio is a master of precision'
Bookseller
`it's a page turning thriller'
Product Description
Yefgenii Yeremin is a flyer and he is a phantom. In the Korean War, he shoots down more American jets than any other pilot in history. He becomes the legendary ace dubbed 'Ivan the Terrible'. But the Soviet Union's involvement in Korea must be kept secret, so his name remains unknown, his victories uncelebrated. Exiled to a remote Arctic base, he becomes a spectator to the new battlefield of Cold War rivalry: space. Yefgenii longs to do battle once more with America's finest aviators, but he remains invisible, forgotten ...until the day in 1964, when a man arrives from Moscow, from the Space Committee, in search of a volunteer. Five years later, Yefgenii Yeremin sets off on the greatest mission of all, in a ship named Voskhodyeniye. His destination is the Moon. "Ascent" is the story of how a single act can not only define the meaning of a man's life, but also that of a nation and a species. It is a story of power, beauty and ultimately grace, and it is like no novel you have ever read before.
From the Publisher
A truly stunning novel – spare, powerful and ultimately awesome – Ascent will propel Jed Mercurio into the first rank of British novelists.
About the Author
Jed Mercurio's first novel Bodies was chosen as one of the five best debuts of 2002 by the Guardian. His adaptation of Bodies won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Drama Series of 2005. While at Medical School, Jed Mercurio received extensive flying training in the Royal Air Force, with the aim of becoming a physician-pilot. He resigned his commission in 1992 and, after beginning a career as a hospital doctor, he became a full-time writer in 1994.
