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Life Out of Order (Standard Edition)

by Audrey Niffenegger

A life divided across time and virtual worlds

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A life divided across time and virtual worlds

Alba DeTamble’s life is shaped by the same rare Chrono-Displacement Disorder as her father: she slips unpredictably across decades and encounters a future she cannot change. Around that speculative premise, the novel brings together family ties, a relationship with Zach, and a community of artists and activists trying to care for one another amid an unstable world. Its settings range from a riot-torn dystopian Chicago to a digital museum devoted to forgotten memories and artifacts, curated by Alba’s mysterious stepsister Isadora. Virtual reality, the natural world, and the question of how people preserve connection and memory all meet in this story of lives out of sequence.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in speculative fiction involving time displacement and virtual reality.
  • Readers drawn to stories combining family relationships with communities of artists and activists.

Themes

Time and memoryFamily tiesVirtual reality and technologyArt and communityCare amid social instability

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"GRACEFUL, COMPLICATED, SATISFYING." -BONNIE GARMUS, AUTHOR OF LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY

The multi-million copy bestselling author of The Time Traveler's Wife returns with an exhilarating speculative story set in a dystopian future where virtual reality and real life converge.

Alba DeTamble has never lived a life in order. Born with the same rare Chrono-Displacement Disorder as her father Henry, she slips unpredictably through decades, haunted by the secrets of a future she can witness but cannot change. As Alba strives to maintain a normal life with Zach, her safe, supportive anchor, she forms a tight-knit community of artists and activists who fight to take care of each other in an increasingly unstable world.

At once intimate and expansive, Life Out of Order plunges readers into a world of Niffenegger's dazzling imagination: from the riot-torn streets of a dystopian Chicago, to a digital museum for forgotten memories and lost artifacts. Curating this ever-expanding museum is Isadora, Alba's mysterious stepsister and an unsettling presence in their family - whose fate may be intertwined with Alba's in more dangerous ways than she knows.

Told through a kaleidoscope of perspectives, the story moves through a boundless, unfolding universe of virtual reality, skimming the wildest reaches of technology and our natural world. The result is a testament to the power of art and community to sustain us in these fractured times--and an epic tale that's set to define an entirely new genre in a way only Niffenegger can.
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