Exhalation
“Three talented narrators—Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, and Amy Landon—share the task of voicing these nine sci-fi stories…The narrators effectively deliver Middle Eastern and African accents, along with the voices of robots, and present stories featuring technical details without sounding stiff or unnatural. Chiang himself provides commentary after each of the stories, explaining its inspiration and helping to shed light on its meaning.”
AudioFile
New York Times bestseller
A #1 Amazon.com bestseller in Science Fiction Anthologies
A Time Magazine Pick of New Books to Read This Month
A Barack Obama Reading List Pick
Shortlisted for the 2020 Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award
Finalist for the Bram Stoker Award for Fiction Collection
A New York Times Pick of Best Books Now in Paperback
Among shortlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2019
Among shortlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2019
Among shortlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2019
Among shortlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2019
Among shortlisted titles for Los Angeles Times Book Prize, 2019
Tackling some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine, these stories will change the way you think, feel, and see the world. They are Ted Chiang at his best: profound, sympathetic, revelatory.
Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
In “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate,” a portal through time forces a fabric seller in ancient Baghdad to grapple with past mistakes and second chances. In “Exhalation,” an alien scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications that are literally universal. In “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom,” the ability to glimpse into alternate universes necessitates a radically new examination of the concepts of choice and free will.
Praise