The novel “Spin” by Robert Charles Wilson was published for the first time in 2005. It’s the first book of the Spin trilogy. It won the Hugo Award as the best novel of the year, the Israeli Geffen Award, the German Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis, the French Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire and the Japanese Seiun Award.

Tyler Dupree is a young boy who’s spending the evening with his friends Jason and Diane Lawton when they realize that in the sky the stars have disappeared. After the initial amazement, he seeks news on television and discovers that something has happened all over the world and telecommunications are having big problems.

Soon the news arrives that the whole Earth got enveloped by an artificial membrane of unknown origin. After some time, attempts to probe it show that it slows down time so for every year that passes on Earth about 100 million years pass outside it. The membrane also filters electromagnetic radiation by hiding the stars and simulating day-night cycles.