The Museum of Human History bookcover

The Museum of Human History

4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
Bookshop.org has the highest-rated customer service of any bookstore in the world

Description

After nearly drowning, eight-year-old Maeve Wilhelm falls into a strange comatose state. As years pass, it becomes clear that Maeve is not physically aging. A wide cast of characters finds themselves pulled toward Maeve, each believing that her mysterious "sleep" holds the answers to their life's most pressing questions: Kevin Marks, a museum owner obsessed with preservation; Monique Gray, a refugee and performance artist; Lionel Wilhelm, an entomologist who dreamed of being an astrophysicist; and Evangeline Wilhelm, Maeve's identical twin. As Maeve remains asleep, the characters grapple with a mysterious new technology and medical advances that promise to ease anxiety and end pain, but instead cause devastating side effects.

Weaving together speculative elements and classic fables, and exploring urgent issues from the opioid epidemic to the hazards of biotech to the obsession with self-improvement and remaining forever young, Rebekah Bergman's The Museum of Human History is a brilliant and fascinating novel about how time shapes us, asking what--if anything--we would be without it.

Product Details

PublisherTin House
Publish DateAugust 01, 2023
Pages256
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconPaperback / softback
EAN/UPC9781953534910
Dimensions9.0 X 6.1 X 0.7 inches | 0.7 pounds

About the Author

Rebekah Bergman's fiction has been published in Joyland, Tin House, The Masters Review anthology, and other journals. She lives in Rhode Island with her family.

Reviews

Magical. . . . A haunting meditation on mortality and memory.-- "Locus"
A startling novel about memory, desire, and learning to age with grace. . . . Offers readers what we as individuals can rarely see on our own, the interconnectedness that hums between every human being.-- "Denver Public Library"
A breathtaking and poignant story about pain, obsession, and the passage of time. . . . Bergman's lyrical prose and keen character insight infuse the novel with near-constant moments of emotional enlightenment.-- "Shelf Awarenss, Starred Review"
A haunting debut novel full of heartbreak and twisted science.-- "The Philadelphia Inquirer"
Aches with grief & humanity & the beauty it's possible to find in the world, even if your vision has become crowded with loss. Astounding. . . . assured & deeply felt.-- "Powell's, Powell's Pick Spotlight"
Impressive. . . . reminiscent of another literary fantasy icon Kevin Brockmeier, as the prose and the subtle interconnections between its characters rise to the level of sublime.-- "Chicago Review of Books, A Must Read Book of August"
A startlingly assured debut. . . . Similar to Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad. . . . a tightly constructed, wonderfully written, utterly original, and astoundingly good novel.-- "Booklist, Starred Review"
A Frankenstein-esque speculative novel for a youth-obsessed culture.-- "NYLON, A Best Book of August"
Original and compelling.-- "Necessary Fiction"
Takes you on an adventure somewhere just out of the periphery of your imagination.-- "Shondaland"
Tells the story of a girl who falls into a dreamlike state for years, never aging as she does so, and explores the ways this affects the people around her and the larger world.-- "Tor.com"
[A] satisfying speculative debut.-- "Publishers Weekly"
Winsome. . . . a startling novel about memory, desire, and learning to age with grace.-- "Foreward Reviews"
With melancholy imagination, Bergman elegantly tackles nothing less than the entire arc of human history. . . . the novel blends fairy tale, philosophy, and shades of literary-futurist classics like Never Let Me Go.-- "Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review"
Bergman is a master at bringing multiple characters to life.-- "Wired"
There are no static exhibits or neatly segmented timelines in Bergman's The Museum of Human History. Here, lives bleed into each other, echoing on decades, centuries, millennia after they end (if they end). A haunting chord of a novel that will hang in the air long after you turn the final page.--Tiffany Tsao, author of The Majesties
Rebekah Bergman's The Museum of Human History is one of the most agile novels I have read in a long time. It reads like a documentary retold as a dream retold as a mystery novel. What a wise, good-hearted debut!--Kate Bernheimer, author of Fairy Tale Architecture
In The Museum of Human History, Rebekah Bergman offers readers what we as individuals can rarely see on our own: the interconnectedness that hums between every human being, the high cost of painlessness and hard truths of our inevitable obsolesce. This is a novel about what we want and also what we can't escape--a story as heartbreaking as it is seductive.--Allegra Hyde, author of Eleutheria
Rebekah Bergman's exploration of our strange biologies reads like the irresistible beating hands of time. This daughter of Mary Shelley delights and excites the border between story and science as she doles out questions that both haunt and expose our obsessions.--Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book

Earn by promoting books

Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.sign up to affiliate program link
Become an affiliate