In Ascension by Martin MacInnes review – a deep dive into sea and space

The novel is ‘a long, slow process to get from the deepest part of the planet to the furthest reaches of space.’ Photograph: Cavan Images/Alamy

My advance copy of Martin MacInnes’s new novel states – alongside a photograph of dog-eared handwritten pages leaning on a rocky outcrop in the sun, stacked so roughly they resemble the craggy peaks of a mountain range – that In Ascension was written “by hand on the coast of east Scotland”.

This seems less an affectation than a direct link between the creation of the book and its purpose: to reinforce, or even reintroduce, the importance of a connection between people and our planet, in the age of climate crisis.