Beyond the Blue Event Horizon

Robinette Broadhead is close to making a fortune. He is paying for an expedition to the Food Factory, a Heechee spaceship able to graze the cometary cloud and turn the basic elements of the universe into vast quantities of food. The venture is a gamble on technology nobody has proved.

Money does not settle his mind. Robin carries the guilt of losing his wife, Gelle-Klara Moynlin, whom he abandoned at the event horizon of a black hole, where she remains held in place. He has never stopped hoping to bring her back.

As reports arrive from the expedition, that hope grows. After three years, the factory is found to work, and a human being is discovered aboard. Robin's long suffering may be close to ending.

This is science fiction, the second book of the Heechee Saga. It follows one man's private torment alongside a large-scale business and space venture, and the pull of the story comes from the question of whether the rescue he wants is possible.