Spin

Tyler Dupree is a boy living on the Lawton estate when the stars go out overnight. Darkness fills the sky, and satellites tumble down as the Spin arrives, a membrane enclosing Earth. Inside it, time runs slowly: millions of years pass in the universe outside for every year on the planet.

Tyler grows up beside Jason Lawton and Jason's twin sister Diane, all three living under the question of what the barrier means and who built it. Jason becomes a scientist working on the problem. Diane joins a fervent religious movement.

Tyler becomes a doctor and stays close to both of them as the world's remaining time shrinks. He tells the story himself, looking back over decades of friendship and loss, so the book reads as a patient, character-centred account rather than a race through events.

It is science fiction, and it sets ideas about time, science and faith beside the personal story. It is the first book in a trilogy that continues with Axis and Vortex. Tor first published it in 2005, and it won the 2006 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

The question running through it is how three people live with a clock they cannot stop, and whether anyone will learn who set it.