Remember You Will Die - by Eden Robins (Paperback)

About the Book

"From the author of When Franny Stands Up comes a genre-bending story told in linked obituaries and newsfeeds over three hundred years about one AI woman grappling with her grief after the mysterious death of her human daughter, and wondering what it really means to be human. What will it take for the death of Poppy Fletcher to make sense? Poppy Fletcher dies too young, and the entire world is eager to accept it and move on. Except for her mother, who is no ordinary mother. She is Peregrine, an AI woman walking the earth, a fugitive loathed and misunderstood by the very people who aided in and benefitted from her creation. As more details emerge about Poppy's death, the facts add up less and less. The story of Poppy and Peregrine spans several centuries of obituaries, and reveals a planet slowly dying, a world increasingly disconnected, and the consequences of ego and greed. The lives, deaths, and grief of others throughout history uncover not only what happened to Poppy, but a tale of art and love, betrayal and redemption - and ultimately, what it means to be alive"--

Book Synopsis

"A reminder, spelled out in boldface, of the remarkable tenacity of life." --Wall Street Journal

"Kaleidoscopic...a fascinating and fresh reading experience." --Chicago Reader

"Moving and grand." --Esquire (Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024)

Can the absence of words tell a story? Like a pattern in lace, the holes as important as the threads?

A search. A puzzle. Sixty protagonists--all of whom are dead.

Told entirely through obituaries and ricocheting through time, Remember You Will Die is an innovative, genre-bending epic about the messy tapestry of human history and the threads that connect us, told through the eyes of Peregrine, an AI mother grappling with the unexpected death of her human daughter, Poppy.

And from the newspaper clippings of individual lives emerges something else unexpected: generations entwined through blood and art and the consequences of their actions, betrayals and redemptions that traverse our dying world and beyond.

Spanning continents, centuries, planets, and genres, and centering a diverse mix of human experiences, Remember You Will Die is a provocative exploration of who we are and what we could be.

Review Quotes

"An engrossing tale...Though no single life is told in full detail, the collective narrative that results, in Robins's ambitious project, is moving and grand." -- Esquire

"Clever, genre-bending...Ms. Robins has clearly enjoyed herself designing this vast network of connections, which often resembles the art installations it commemorates, full of patterns and puzzles and messages. Its excess and energy make it less a memento mori than a reminder, spelled out in boldface, of the remarkable tenacity of life." -- Wall Street Journal

"Kaleidoscopic...a fascinating and fresh reading experience." -- Chicago Reader

"A joyously enlivening masterpiece...Eden Robins could have the singular bestseller of the year." -- Shelf Awareness, G.L.O.W.

"Robins infuses her stories with the kind of lived-in, unremarkable reality that more traditional science fiction narratives often struggle to impart...Original and thoughtful, refreshing despite the constant centrality of death, this is highly recommended." -- Locus Magazine

"Provocative...an intriguing read for those who enjoy SF and innovative storytelling." -- Booklist

"A bold structure, wonderful errantry, and a unique imagination mark Eden Robins's new novel, Remember You Will Die--a compilation of obituaries whose impact is greater than the sum of its parts." -- Jeffrey Ford, author of The Shadow Year

"Eden Robins's Remember You Will Die transcends its ingenious obituary form. It becomes a murder mystery of portraits, a eulogy of the everyday moments that make up epic lives, a web of the important ways we intersect and influence one another beyond our knowing. It handles the morbid and the macabre with admirable compassion and humor. I loved every page." -- Jac Jemc, author of Empty Theatre and The Grip of It

"In Eden Robins' eerie and poignant Remember You Will Die, we follow an AI woman, Peregrine, as she attempts to understand what happened to her human child. Did she die? Did she disappear? And what does it mean to die, to disappear? Peregrine learns what it means to grieve as she travels all of history via a cache of obituaries and etymologies, searching for clues about her child. By the end, I was gobsmacked, awed. Eden Robins has given us an instant classic." -- Lindsay Hunter, author of Hot Springs Drive

"An audacious and unforgettable tale that reminds us what the novel can do, Remember You Will Die captures the exhilaration, heartbreak, and passion of a life fully lived." -- Stephanie Feldman, author of Saturnalia

"Emotionally powerful, witty, and razor sharp, Remember You Will Die is unlike anything you've read before. Eden Robins has created a new epistolary literary form, one custom made for our dark times. It feels both dystopian and full of hope, classic and groundbreaking, and it will leave you changed. Brilliant." -- Ann Dávila Cardinal, author of We Need No Wings