Version Control - by Dexter Palmer (Paperback)

About the Book

The compelling story of a couple living in the wake of a personal tragedy. She is a star employee of an online dating company, while he is a physicist, performing experiments that, if ever successful, may have unintended consequences, altering the nature of their lives and perhaps of reality itself. Rebecca Wright has gotten her life back, finding her way out of 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. However, she has a persistent, strange 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; and each night she has disquieting dreams that may or may not be related to her husband Philip's pet project. Philip's decade-long dedication to the causality violation device (which he would greatly prefer you do 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 imagines . . .

Book Synopsis

Although Rebecca Wright has pieced her life back together after a major tragedy, she can't shake a sense that the world around her feels off-kilter. Meanwhile, her husband's dedication to his invention, "the causality violation device" (which he would greatly prefer you not call a time machine) has effectively stalled his career--but he may be closer to success than either of them can possibly imagine. Emotionally powerful and wickedly intelligent, Version Control is a stunningly prescient novel about the effects of science and technology on our lives, our friendships, and our sense of self that will alter the way you see the future--and the present.

Review Quotes

An NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, GQ, Vox, and Buzzfeed Best Book of the Year
One of The Washington Post's best science fiction and fantasy books of the year

"Exhilarating. . . . A thoughtful, powerful overhaul of the age-old time travel tale." --NPR

"With time travel as a fascinating backdrop, Palmer delicately examines the layers of stories we create when trying to differentiate 'the information from the truth.'" --The Washington Post

"One of 2016's best science fiction novels. . . . Version Control should be on the reading list of every fan of smart sci-fi." --GQ

"Engrossing and strange. . . . A knowing, frequently funny and often very sad novel that explores love, marriage and loss in the age of social media." --San Francisco Chronicle

"Brilliant and richly satisfying: a novel that is utterly true to the complicated and science fictional world we live in today." --Buzzfeed

About the Author

Dexter Palmer's first novel, The Dream of Perpetual Motion, was selected as one of the best fiction debuts of 2010 by Kirkus Reviews. Palmer lives in Princeton, New Jersey.