How celestial bodies impact life on earth - from the acclaimed author of Notes from Deep Time

'The Meteorites conjures a small epiphany about our own place in the universe' The Sunday Times 'Stunning and riveting' Noreen Masud, author of A Flat Place 'Dazzling' Financial Times From your window you can see the stars and distant planets: light years away, it's easy to think that our existences and theirs will never intersect. Yet meteorites - mysterious, irregular rocks of sometimes immense value - connect us with the vastness of the universe. They may have brought the first life to our planet, and today they still reveal extraordinary scientific insights. Helen Gordon reveals the fascinating stories of fallen meteorites and the lives they've touched - from collectors to kings, scientists to farmers. She meets amateur astronomers and gem dealers, goes meteorite hunting across rooftops and learns what objects moving through space can tell us about the fragility of life on Earth.

"Performs a similar trick to Samantha Harvey's recent Booker-winning novel Orbital, flipping our perspective so that we see our individual, terrestrial lives through the lens of deep space and deep time.... The Meteorites conjures a small epiphany about our own place in the universe" - The Sunday Times

"Dazzling....Gordon's thinking about the subject develops its own kind of new fusion skin, putting forward a vision in which there is no barrier between our planet and our universe" - Financial Times

"Gripping, deft and riveting. Gordon moves with total mastery from the human to the cosmic and back again" - A Flat Place

"A brilliantly engaging tour of meteorites, a book that reminds us that while they might come from outer space they are part and parcel of our planet" - Atlas of Unexpected Places

"Praise for Notes from Deep Time: Astounding ... To call this a "history" does not do justice to Helen Gordon's ambition ... Sheer intellectual and poetical entertainment" - Daily Telegraph

"Profoundly considered and far-reaching ... Notes from Deep Time reaches into a place that, in a post-religious era, offers a glimpse of something close to eternity" - FT

"Awe-inspiring" - Mail on Sunday