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Short Works: Apologia: a lone astronaut, on watching the world end by Jessie Greengrass

Apologia: a lone astronaut, on watching the world end by Jessie Greengrass

BBC Radio 4 - Short Works, Apologia: a lone astronaut, on watching the world end by Jessie Greengrass

A haunting meditation on loneliness and loss from the depths of space.

Alone in space as the world is about to end an astronaut ruminates on the nature of 'home' and is wracked by grief and longing for the wife and children he has left behind.

Deep in the cosmos, a very long way from home, an astronaut prepares to say goodbye to planet earth. Sent off on a mysterious quest to find other worlds he will now  never return to his own. 
As the moment of Earth's destruction approaches so does his moment of reckoning. 
Consumed by love and longing for his wife and children, he questions whether he has loved them well enough. He knows that in leaving them behind to embrace a life of exploration, he was turning away from the terrors, but also the joys, of fatherhood, the agonies, but also the ecstasies of intimacy. Remembering how he was unable to bear his children's slightest suffering, and inventing any excuse to absent himself when they were ill or hurt, he wishes he could make amends.
But now it is too late. 
Apologia is a heart-rending meditation on loneliness and loss and the perils of turning away from love.

Written by award-winning author Jessie Greengrass
Read by actor Billy Howle
Produced by Karen Holden

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Apologia: a lone astronaut, on watching the world end by Jessie Greengrass

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