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Title details for Version Control by Dexter Palmer - Available

Version Control

A Novel

by Dexter Palmer
January LaVoy
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
An NPR, GQ, and Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year
One of The Washington Post’s best science fiction and fantasy books of the year
The acclaimed author of The Dream of Perpetual Motion returns with a compelling novel about the effects of science and technology on our friendships, our love lives, and our sense of self. 
Rebecca Wright has reclaimed her life, finding her way out of her grief and depression following a personal tragedy years ago. She spends her days working in customer support for the internet dating site where she first met her husband. But she has a strange, persistent sense that everything around her is somewhat off-kilter: she constantly feels as if she has walked into a room and forgotten what she intended to do there; on TV, the President seems to be the wrong person in the wrong place; her dreams are full of disquiet. Meanwhile, her husband's decade-long dedication to his invention, the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you not call a “time machine”) has effectively stalled his career and made him a laughingstock in the physics community. But he may be closer to success than either of them knows or can possibly imagine.

Version Control is about a possible near future, but it’s also about the way we live now. It’s about smart phones and self-driving cars and what we believe about the people we meet on the Internet. It’s about a couple, Rebecca and Philip, who have experienced a tragedy, and about how they help—and fail to help—each other through it. Emotionally powerful and stunningly visionary, Version Control will alter the way you see your future and your present.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 23, 2016

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780399569470
      • File size: 543528 KB
      • Duration: 18:52:20

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Narrator January LaVoy transitions smoothly between character voices in this audiobook about the development of a "causality violation" device--a time machine. Phillip, the physicist directing the project, is ever present in the story, but the main narrator is his wife, Rebecca, who works for an online dating site. Despite continued assurances that the device has not yet been successful, Rebecca has a pervasive feeling that something is not right. LaVoy's character portrayals feature nuances in their attitudes and interactions that shift with the flow of events. She maintains the story's narrative drive and sustains her tone of engagement throughout the exposition. J.E.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from December 14, 2015
      Palmer’s lengthy, complex, highly challenging second novel is more brilliant than his debut, The Dream of Perpetual Motion. Philip Steiner is working to develop a causality-violation device—a machine that will make it possible to visit and interact with the past. Meanwhile, Philip’s wife, Rebecca Wright, an employee at an online dating company, must cope with past tragedy. Far more than a standard-model time travel saga, this science thriller deals with love, politics, history, loss, tragedy, bonding, craft beers, jogging, Internet dating, alcoholism, temptation, sin, redemption, rock ’n’ roll, jazz, Rudolph Fisher, and gourmet cooking. It takes place in the very near future, or perhaps in a slightly variant universe where reality can vary from one moment to the next. Is that really Ronald Reagan’s face on a $20 bill, or the face of another president (definitely not Andrew Jackson)? Humorous set pieces include an utterly hilarious cocktail party set in a luxurious high-rise condo overlooking New York’s Central Park. Palmer earned his doctorate from Princeton with a thesis on the works of James Joyce, Thomas Pynchon, and William Gaddis. This book stands with the masterpieces of those authors. Agent: Susan Golomb, Writers House.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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