Spin — Robert Charles Wilson

"THE TIME IS THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and three adolescents--Diane and Jason Lawton, twins, and their best friend, Tyler Dupree--are out stargazing. Thus they witness the erection of a planet-spanning shield around the globe, blocking out the universe. Spin chronicles the next 30-odd years in the lives of the trio, during which 300 billion years will pass outside the shield, thanks to an engineered time discontinuity. Jason, a genius, will invest his celibate life in unraveling cosmological mysteries. Tyler will become a doctor and act as our narrator and as Jason's confidante, while nursing his unrequited love for Diane, who in turn plunges into religious fanaticism. Along the way, human-descended Martians will appear, bringing a drug that can elevate humans to the Fourth State, an adulthood beyond adulthood.' But will even this miracle be enough to save Earth?... Here's a book that features speculative conceits as brash and thrilling as those found in any space opera, along with insights into the human condition as rich as those contained within any mainstream mimetic fiction, with both its conceits and insights beautifully embedded in crystalline prose." --The Washington Post