Vessel

by andrew reichard

Alone on the interstellar ship Vessel, billions of light-years from his home, Tennar is confronted by a sudden, overpowering memory of a painting from the house where he grew up. This memory sets off a sequence of events -- both internal and external -- that lead him through a labyrinthine meditation on memory, solitude, and the interplay of these two elements on knowledge. And as the ship continues its search for the absolute void, the terminus of created space that it's been designed to reach; Tennar, within the ship, gradually approaches Vessel's conceptual center and, he hopes, a more complete realization of his sudden memory and its significance.

praise for Vessel

Drew Reichard is attuned to the vastness of space and the smallest movements of the human soul. Vessel is a story of both sorts of distance. It is surprising, original, and filled with wonder.

— MARK KISSLER

When I read [Reichard's] work, I watch for something I could never have imagined, but which he makes me totally believe in. And what I believe in is a character caught in a world so different from our own, but strangely familiar in its motivations and urgings . . . His tone and diction are often the largest part of the story, in that they convey character and attitudinal motives that play out in the fantastic worlds and situations he creates. I was his writing teacher once; now, I read his work to figure out how he does what he does.

— GARY D. SCHMIDT, professor of English at Calvin University and two-time Newbery winner for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and The Wednesday Wars

about the author