Unworld - by Jayson Greene (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

NAMED A NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST - From the author of Once More We Saw Stars comes a gripping novel about four intertwined lives that collide in the wake of a mysterious tragedy. Set in a near-future world where the boundaries between human and AI blur, the story challenges our understanding of consciousness and humanity.

"Gripping, tender, haunting, and so gorgeously written, UnWorld is a staggeringly beautiful debut novel." --Suleika Jaouad, author of Between Two Kingdoms

Anna is shattered by the violent death of her son, Alex, and tormented by the question of whether it was an accident or a suicide. Samantha is Alex's best friend, and the only eyewitness to his death. She keeps returning to the cliff where she watched him either jump or fall, trying to sift through the shards. Aviva is an "upload," a digital entity composed of the sense memories of a human tether. But she's "emancipated," having left her human behind. Set free from her source and harboring a troubling secret, she finds temporary solace in the body of Cathy, a self-destructive ex-addict turned AI professor and upload-rights activist.

With UnWorld, Jayson Greene envisions a grim but eerily familiar near-future where all lines have blurred--between visceral and digital, human and machine, real and unreal. As Anna, Cathy, Sam, and Aviva's stories hurtle toward each other, the stakes of UnWorld reveal themselves with electrifying intensity: What happens to the soul when it is splintered by grief? Where does love reside except in memory? What does it mean to be conscious, to be human, to be alive?

Review Quotes

"UnWorld is a novel both situated in and structured by the excruciating aftermath of loss. . . . Greene's meticulous characterization urges the reader toward a philosophy of human consciousness that acknowledges the obscurity of the mind while gently affirming two entwined, undeniable qualities of personhood: that sentience entails pain, just as it entails, for most, the desire to escape it."
--The Washington Post

"[UnWorld] is a story of grief, identity, and the struggle for connection. Greene dispenses with tedious sci-fi world-building and concentrates on the emotional journeys of the characters. . . . This is less I, Robot and more Ordinary People. . . . Humane and refreshingly idiosyncratic."
--The Wall Street Journal

"A lightly speculative story where intelligence may be artificial, but emotions are painfully real. . . . The best of UnWorld marks a writer to watch."
--The Boston Globe

"UnWorld is a richly layered, deeply intimate novel that holds a mirror to the depths of our own loneliness and offers a meditation on how to continually love ourselves through a cascade of grief that changes but doesn't end."
--Hanif Abdurraqib, author of There's Always This Year

"Gripping, tender, haunting, and so gorgeously written, UnWorld is a staggeringly beautiful debut novel. With nuance and subtlety, with grace and deep feeling, Jayson Greene writes about the most ancient of human stories of love and grief, alongside the pressing, hypermodern concerns of the digital age, like artificial intelligence. On an idea level, on an emotional level, and on a sentence level, I was entranced."
--Suleika Jaouad, author of Between Two Kingdoms

"UnWorld is a gorgeous, fascinating exploration of the tethers of love and grief. Jayson Greene invests artificial intelligence with a juicy, pulsating heart. There were sentences that made me shake my head in awe."
--Samantha Irby, author of Quietly Hostile

"In UnWorld, Jayson Greene maps the shifting landscapes of the mind, where consciousness splinters and intertwines, revealing both the fragility and vastness of being. In a world where fractured selves whisper and artificial intelligence looms, his captivating storytelling is a mirror--revealing and illuminating the deepest nuance of this human experience. This mesmerizing novel is more than a story--it's a meditation on what it means to be human, asking questions that echo long after the last page."
--Alua Arthur, author of Briefly Perfectly Human

"Haunting and deeply introspective. . . . Greene crafts a stunning narrative that is as emotionally resonant as it is thought-provoking, weaving together mystery and philosophical speculation with graceful, evocative prose. The result is a mesmerizing meditation on loss, technology, and the enduring nature of human connection."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A mesmerizing novel in which boundaries between human and digital are as blurred as those between reality and imagination."
--Kirkus

About the Author

JAYSON GREENE is the author of Once More We Saw Stars and a contributing writer and former senior editor at Pitchfork. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son. This is his first novel.