Earth 7 with Deb Olin Unferth
Thu 16 Jul 2026
7:00pm at Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights, 14-15 John St, Bath, BA1 2JL
All tickets include 15% off any books purchased on the night, a glass of wine or soft drink, author talk, Q&A and signing.
Other ways to book:
Email books@mrbsemporium.com, call 01225 331155 or pop into the shop at 14-15 John Street, Bath. BA1 2JL.
We are thrilled to welcome author Deb Olin Unferth all the way from the US to celebrate the publication of her new novel, Earth 7.
Our Soffi has already devoured an early copy of Earth 7 and says: “One woman grows up in a pod under the sea, another other on land, often mistaken for a robot. On a depopulated planet, can a molecular code be the answer to humanity’s future away from Earth, and is it worth saving anyway?A beautiful, optimistic and strange piece of speculative fiction that ponders what we’re losing, and what the earth might be without us. It’s slippery, profound and often funny. For fans of Ursula le Guin, Jeff Vandemeer, Martin MacInnes and Emily St John Mandel.”
Deb Olin Unferth will be in conversation with Elizabeth McCracken, award-winning author of eight books including The Hero of This Book and most recently, A Long Game.
Can’t make it to the event? Order a signed and dedicated copy here.
About the book:
Two women, one raised in near solitude in a research pod in the depths of the ocean and one a luxury-resort bartender who may or may not be a robot, fall in love, cross deserts, gaze at the stars – and try not only to hold onto one another but together, possibly, salvage some trace of planet Earth.
Heartbreaking, mind-expanding, soaring with beauty, Earth 7 is at once a love letter to the world and a portrait of its slow disappearance. It’s about love and grief, microbiology and astrophysics, robots and planet Mars, and humanity in all its greatness, absurdity and distress. Welding the deeply human to the thrillingly strange, fizzing with intelligence and profoundly moving, it is the novel we need right now, and for all times.
‘What a remarkable book! . . . Her story enfolds the reader like a dream – so much beauty, so much wisdom, such feats of imagination. I am in awe.’ Karen Joy Fowler
‘Terrifying and life-affirming all at the same dizzying time. Throw yourself into Deb Olin Unferth’s world; you won’t regret it.’ Jon McGregor
‘An elegy to the world we have now, already disappearing, and at the same time, it’s a message in a bottle, an offering of hope for some far-off future. Intimate and wistful and hypnotic, full of rich detail and beautiful writing.’ Charles Yu
About the author:
Deb Olin Unferth is the author of seven books, including Barn 8 and Wait Till You See Me Dance. She has received a Guggen-heim Fellowship and three Pushcart Prizes, and was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. Her work has appeared in Granta, Harper’s, McSweeney’s and the Paris Review.