Letters from Mir

Inspiring letters of an embattled astronaut in space to his young son on Earth.In January 1997, astronaut Dr. Jerry Linenger embarked on a “routine” five-month mission to the Russian space station Mir, leaving behind his pregnant wife and 14-month-old son, and the everyday pleasures of planet Earth. Before he left, he promised to write. Though his mission did not go as planned, he kept his word.Linenger’s 132 days aboard the decaying space station were beset by near-fatal glitches that at times left the crew in total darkness, tumbling out of control. Most terrifying was a raging fire that nearly destroyed the station and all on board. It was with this last event, when, with the crew cut off from the world below and locked in a battle for survival, Linenger’s letters to his son changed from a routine chronicle of daily events to the heart-felt, deeply moving story shared here.At the end of each difficult day, Jerry Linenger would fly over to his ceiling-mounted laptop and write to his boy, expressing the thoughts and feelings that any father has for his child--but that too many fail to communicate. In extreme isolation and constant danger, knowing he might never see his family again, Linenger was able to “speak from the heart,” sharing meditations on life and destiny, adventure and courage, love and family; and passing on wryly playful pearls of wisdom, from “Never get on a teeter-totter with someone bigger than you” to “Don’t give a kiss on impulse.”An inspirational and charming book, Letters from Mir is at once a chronicle of time spent in space and a touching example of how one man’s experience off the planet brought him closer to the son he loves.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.