"It's about the stories that we pass on and give to one another," Elan tells PEOPLE of her debut dystopian novel
NEED TO KNOW
- Homebound is Good Morning America‘s May 2026 book club pick!
- Portia Elan’s debut novel is a sci-fi adventure across space and time, with roots in 1980s Cincinnati and the era’s gaming scene
- Elan tells PEOPLE Homebound, which follows five intertwined lives across more than 600 years, is “about the stories that we pass on and give to one another”
Introducing Good Morning America's May 2026 book club pick: Homebound!
Portia Elan's debut sci-fi novel hit shelves on May 5 — and on the very same day, the gaming adventure across space and time was named GMA's book club pick for May, PEOPLE can exclusively reveal. Homebound follows Becks, a 19-year-old grappling with a sudden loss and an undying desire to leave Cincinnati, when she takes on a gaming project that has an impact for centuries to come.
The essence of 1980s Cincinnati is a big part of Elan's novel, so she plunged into firsthand accounts from the period when constructing the world of her book, she tells PEOPLE.
Credit: Clayton J. Mitchell
"Homebound starts in the 1980s, and it goes 600 years into the future," Elan tells PEOPLE. "And in researching that near-history, far-future possibility, I spent a lot of time really just looking for stories."
Building her authentic atmosphere of Cincinnati in the 1980s, Elan drew from testimonies of individuals who lived in that moment and place in time, from their memoirs to their posts about the era.
Another way she researched for Homebound was by immersing herself in the video games that were popular during that time period, including "Oregon Trail," "Photopia" and "Colossal Cave Adventure." The last in the list was created in the 1970s by Willie Crowther, who originally wrote the game as a gift for his daughters — a bit of history that poetically parallels themes in Elan's novel.
"I think that really gets at the heart of the book, too," Elan says. "It's about the stories that we pass on and give to one another."
Homebound meets Becks, a young woman from Cincinnati, as she's mourning her late uncle, "the only person who understood her," per the book's synopsis. In the wake of her uncle's death, Becks learns he left her a half-finished game to complete, so she takes on the project.
"Little does she know, what Becks is making will echo far into the future and shape the lives of a scientist, a sentient automaton and a flinty sea captain in ways she cannot imagine," the book's synopsis reads. "All are bound together by their search for connection — and by a futuristic traveler on a mysterious mission through space."
Credit: Scribner
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Homebound, the May 2026 book club pick for Good Morning America, is available now, wherever books are sold.
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