In Universes
"[A] time-bending, mind-expanding novel." --People
A Best Pride Read by People and Brit + Co - A Parade Best New Book Release - A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Tor.com, Bustle, Literary Hub, Autostraddle, Gizmodo, IGN, and Lilith Magazine
"Baffingly good." -Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox
"A miracle of physics and art." -Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth
For fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Kelly Link, a profoundly imaginative debut novel set in numerous universes, which follows a queer physicist's search for belonging across time and space.
Raffi works in an observational cosmology lab, searching for dark matter and trying to hide how little they understand their own research. Every chance they get, they escape to see Britt, a queer sculptor who fascinates them for reasons they also don't--or won't--understand. As Raffi's carefully constructed life begins to collapse, they become increasingly fixated on the multiverse and the idea that somewhere, there might be a universe where they mean as much to Britt as she does to them...and just like that, Raffi and Britt are thirteen years old, best friends and maybe something more.
In Universes is a mind-bending tour across parallel worlds, each an answer to the question of what life would be like if events had played out just a little differently. The universes grow increasingly strange: women fracture into hordes of animals, alien-infested bears prowl apocalyptic landscapes. But across them all, Raffi--alongside their sometimes-friends, sometimes-lovers Britt, Kay, and Graham--reaches for a life that feels authentically their own.
Blending realism with science fiction, In Universes explores the thirst for genius, the fluidity of gender and identity, and the pull of the past against the desire to lead a meaningful life. Part Ted Chiang, part Carmen Maria Machado, part Everything Everywhere All At Once, In Universes insists on the transgressive power of hope even in the darkest of times.
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EMET NORTH has lived in a dozen states over the past decade and has no fixed residence, though they feel most at home in the mountains. In previous lives, they worked in an observational cosmology lab on a grant from NASA, taught snowboarding in Montana, researched Lie algebras, led wine tastings, waited tables, trained horses, and wrote a thesis on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. They translate from Spanish to English with a particular focus on queer and trans voices and are always looking for new projects.
"In Universes is an explosion of creative beauty and heart. Emet North is a massively talented writer arriving ready to awe." -- Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
"A soul-stirring debut. . . . This crackling chronicle of queer love is a must read." -- Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Emet North beautifully fractures the veil between genres, weaving a kaleidoscopic journey of identity, love, and the choices that make us. This is a multiverse where both tender and painful childhood memories echo through the dark matter of adulthood and finds its way to post-apocalyptic gardens of the dead. An assured and wildly imaginative debut that never loses its heart in any of its realities." -- Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark
"[A] time-bending, mind-expanding novel."
-- People
"In Universes is a magical, bighearted, genre-jumping ode to queerness and the breaking and re-making of reality." -- Bustle, "This Spring's Most Anticipated Books"
"Daring, brilliant, and revelatory, In Universes scatters its characters' stories across the multiverse, showing us every one of the infinite lives we might live. It's a miracle of physics and art, filled with wonder and grief, hope and regret, survival and romance and loss. By its end, we know: the best of all possible worlds is this one where we get to read Emet North's writing." -- Julia Phillips, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth
"This spellbinding novel moves across infinitely branching realities to uncover the deepest truths about our relationships. . . . While darkness lurks across worlds and in dangerous choices, this is ultimately a hopeful view of the power of human connection, no matter the cost or the reality." -- Booklist
"In Universes is a dazzling and inventive exploration of the many people we might become, the possibilities we might discover, and the heartbreak we can't run from. This novel is a breathtaking introduction to a brilliant new voice." -- Danielle Evans, award-winning author of The Office of Historical Corrections
"In the sci-fi/literary novel In Universes, the Sliding Doors peek into the road not taken becomes real. . . . Dizzying, romantic and a handy primer on the multiverse." -- Parade, Best New Book Releases
"Bafflingly good. In Universes is an exhilarating, disorienting fabulist extravaganza to which we can only, and happily, submit. But it is also, secretly--and brilliantly--kind of a meta-novel about the melancholia of science fiction itself." -- Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox
"North's book is absolutely of the contemporary moment, fresh and surprising. . . . Displaying a deep humanism, lacking any kind of tendentious impulses, it explores the socially-embedded variable sexuality, and matters of will and kismet, of its protagonist with a kind of amiable, melancholy curiosity. . . .North's prose throughout every section is both understated and poetic, full of gravitas yet unpretentious. . . . In the end, North's debut novel succeeds in conveying the mutability and precariousness of existence." -- Locus Magazine
"North's debut is a surreal sci-fi-tinged book about parallel worlds and trying to find a place to fit in. It is unlike anything else I've ever read. In Universes completely left my jaw on the floor and moved me in ways a book hasn't made me feel in a long time." -- Debutiful
"A practicing physicist before they were a novelist, North wrote their thesis on the many-worlds theory of quantum mechanics(!) and their debut blends great storytelling with serious contemplation of what the many-worlds theory could mean for questions of identity, life, death, and more. . . . Read this when you need a bit of hope and uplift." -- Literary Hub
"Beautiful and surreal, In Universes is a tenderly-crafted maze that brims with emotion--despair and regret, love and hope--as it wrestles with the endless seeking of self and the 'what-ifs' that define a life." -- Fonda Lee, author of The Green Bone Saga and winner of the World Fantasy Award
"In Universes has a wonderous way of taking the full expanse of the heart (vast! unending!) and collapsing it into a jeweled beauty you can hold in your hands. This novel is brainy and surprising and--in a cartwheeling, star-spinning way--completely real." -- Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal
"In a feat of narrative structure both dazzling and convincing, North gives us deep and emotionally complex access to one human being's journey across the multiverse, makes us think deeply about our own unchosen doorways, redefines realism as they kick its ass. In Universes is a wonder of a novel." -- Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope In the High Country
"North's debut novel is an inventive, mind-bending literary science fiction that delves into mental health, queerness, Judaism, love, and more as it explores parallel universes. . . .this slim novel is a wonderfully immersive and vivid read." -- IGN
