Vanished Birds

This debut science fiction novel by Simon Jimenez is a slow mover and there were times when I almost walked away. But Kirkus claimed that, "in this gorgeous debut novel, love becomes a force that can shatter space and time." They go on to offer a better plot summary than I could do:  "We first see Nia Imani through the eyes of someone she is always leaving behind: Kaeda, a boy growing up on a backwater planet visited once every 15 years by offworlders who come to collect its harvests. Nia is the captain of a faster-than-light ship that travels through Pocket Space. While Kaeda lives a decade and a half, Nia spends just a few months traveling between various resource-producing worlds like his, shipping goods for the powerful Umbai Company. It’s not until a mysterious boy falls out of the sky on Kaeda’s planet that Nia begins to form a connection she’s not willing to walk away from."
There are three characters who provide the narrative: Fumiko Nakajima, a genius who will change the shape of space with her ideas and who is convinced that somewhere are people who can travel the universe in the blink of an eye; Nia Imani, the captain of a trading ship working for the Umbai corporation; and the boy, Ahro, who is a mystery to himself as well as to others, but who touches Nia's heart profoundly. Kirkus concludes by saying, "The best of what science fiction can be: a thought-provoking, heart-rending story about the choices that define our lives." So how could I not finish the book. Likewise, Publishers Weekly says of the book, "This extraordinary science fiction epic, which delves deep into the perils of failing to learn from one’s mistakes, is perfect for fans of big ideas and intimate reflections."