Thursday, May 16, 6:30 p.m.
Join the Hudson Library & Historical Society on Thursday, May 16 at 6:30 p.m. for an in-person author event with journalist and author David Ignatius, who will discuss his new book Phantom Orbit. His book addresses our moment of renewed interest in space exploration amid geopolitical tumult.
Phantom Orbit follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing, who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He takes the puzzle to a senior scientist in the Chinese space program and declares his intention to solve it. Volkov returns to Moscow and continues his secret work. The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who’d been too tough on corruption, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He writes: Satellites are your enemies, especially your own. . . . Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south. . . . If you are smart, you will find me. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare and Volkov may be able to stop the Doomsday clock.
David Ignatius is a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for four decades. He has written several New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Washington, DC.
Registration for this program is required. Copies of Phantom Orbit will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of the Learned Owl Book Shop.
For more information, email askus@hudson.lib.oh.us or call (330) 653-6658 x1010.
