Life Out of Order
About this ebook
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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About the author
Audrey Niffenegger is a visual artist and writer who lives in Chicago and London. Her book art, prints, and paintings are included in the collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Newberry Library, and the Library of Congress, among others. In 2019, she founded Artists Book House, a non-profit center for the literary and book arts. Ms. Niffenegger was also one of the founders of the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. She was a Professor at Columbia College until 2015. She has published eight books, including the novels The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry, as well as the graphic novels Raven Girl, The Night Bookmobile, and Bizarre Romance (with Eddie Campbell). The Time Traveler’s Wife has been adapted into a film, an HBO television series, and a West End stage musical. Other adaptations include a ballet of Raven Girl, which was created by the choreographer Wayne McGregor in 2013 for the Royal Opera House Ballet.
