David Ignatius is known for his uncanny ability, in novel after novel, to predict the next great national security headline. In Phantom Orbit, he presents a story both searing and topical, with stakes as far-reaching as outer space. It follows Ivan Volkov, a Russian student in Beijing, who discovers an unsolved puzzle in the writings of the seventeenth-century astronomer Johannes Kepler. He takes the puzzle to a senior scientist in the Chinese space program and declares his intention to solve it. Volkov returns to Moscow and continues his secret work. The puzzle holds untold consequences for space warfare.

The years pass, and they are not kind to Volkov. After the loss of his son, a prosecutor who'd been too tough on corruption, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Volkov makes the fraught decision to contact the CIA. He writes: Satellites are your enemies, especially your own. . . . Hidden codes can make time stop and turn north into south. . . . If you are smart, you will find me.

With this timely novel, Ignatius addresses our moment of renewed interest in space exploration amid geopolitical tumult. Phantom Orbit brims with the author's vital insights and casts Volkov as the man who, at the risk of his life, may be able to stop the Doomsday clock.

About the Author
David Ignatius is a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post and has been covering the Middle East and the CIA for four decades. He has written several New York Times bestsellers. He lives in Washington, DC.

Reviews
"As with all Ignatius's novels, Phantom Orbit draws back the curtain and shows how the deliberatively murky world of intelligence and espionage really works." -- Alma Katsu - Washington Post
"A meaty, slow-burning spy thriller that combines geopolitics with a primer on celestial mechanics." -- Steven Poole - Wall Street Journal
"Phantom Orbit as a thriller artfully uses space as a backdrop for what still remains the domain of techies who must master its complexity. This novel is thought provoking, allowing the reader to ponder and anticipate the complexity surrounding the possible political/military and civil outcomes when the battle seems so far away." -- Jeffrey Harris - The Cipher Brief
"Engrossing....This is contemporary cloak-and-dagger intrigue at its finest." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A space yarn filled with tension and excitement." -- Kirkus Reviews



Book Information
ISBN 9781324110514
Author David Ignatius
Format Paperback
Page Count 384
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co