The acceleration of Earth’s spin begins gradually. At first, days are just a few seconds shorter than normal. Awareness of the mysterious phenomenon hasn’t reached Tanner, a young man preoccupied with dreams of escaping his tiny Alaskan hometown. One night, desperate to make his mark on the world, he runs away. He lands an unlikely job at CWC, the global operator of a network of massive aircraft that orbit the Earth at 30,000 feet, revolutionizing global transportation. Now goods and people can travel anywhere in little more than an hour—you can visit Paris for an evening or order sushi from Japan. But a wave of social unrest presents challenges for CWC just as Tanner settles into his new lifestyle and develops surprising feelings for one of his colleagues.

That unrest sweeps up Winnie. A high school outcast in an era of street protests, wild parties, and online savagery, Winnie falls in with a group of teen activists who blame CWC for the planet’s acceleration. As days on Earth quicken to twenty-three hours, then twenty, the sun rising and setting ever faster, causing violent storms and political meltdowns, Tanner and Winnie’s stories spiral closer together. They meet cynical executives toiling to forestall the crises they created and religious zealots for whom the apocalypse can’t come soon enough, lobbyists and lovers all coping in their own ways, and Victor Bickle—the self-aggrandizing TV scientist whose shameful secret will bind Tanner and Winnie’s fates . . . if they can uncover it before the Earth spins so fast that even gravity might lose its grip.

Three-hour days. Two-hour days . . .

A propulsive exploration of capitalism, technology, and our place within a system that dwarfs us, Circular Motion is one of the most ingenious debut novels of our time.

Praise for Circular Motion:

“An impressive debut. Foster is a writer of imaginative daring and narrative dexterity.”—Jeffrey Eugenides

“Circular Motion is a gift: every paragraph offers something to make you think, laugh, feel, or simply look up from the page and sigh in awe or recognition.”—Jonathan Safran Foer

“I’m a sucker for doomsday novels, but Circular Motion sucker-punched me right in the heart. Brilliantly written and utterly absorbing. Who needs gravity when Alex Foster keeps you absolutely grounded in his prose.”—Gary Shteyngart

“Circular Motion is a deep investigation of how time is valued in contemporary society, while also being a deftly plotted page-turner. I read it in just a couple of sittings; time flew.”—Vauhini Vara, author of The Immortal King Rao, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize