In Universes: A Novel

by Emet North, Em North

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES' 10 BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY BOOKS OF THE YEAR

“Haunting and hopeful, precise and lingering...” – Amal El-Mohtar, New York Times Book Review

Winner of the Otherwise Award • Long-listed for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award

An Esquire and Literary Hub Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of the Year • An Autostraddle Best Queer Book of 2024 • A Best Pride Read by People and Brit + Co • A Parade Best New Book Release • A Best New Science Fiction Book by New Scientist  • A Most Anticipated Book of 2024 by Tor.com, Bustle, Literary Hub, Autostraddle, Gizmodo, IGN, and Lilith Magazine 

"Baffingly good." – Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox

"A miracle of physics and art." – Julia Phillips, author of Disappearing Earth

For fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Kelly Link, a profoundly imaginative debut novel set in numerous universes, which follows a queer physicist’s search for belonging across time and space.

Raffi works in an observational cosmology lab, searching for dark matter and trying to hide how little they understand their own research. Every chance they get, they escape to see Britt, a queer sculptor who fascinates them for reasons they also can’t—or won’t—understand. As Raffi’s carefully constructed life begins to collapse, they become increasingly fixated on the multiverse and the idea that somewhere, there may be a universe where they mean as much to Britt as Britt does to them . . . and just like that, Raffi and Britt are thirteen years old, on the cusp of friendship, and maybe something more.

A meditation on self-destruction and reconstruction, In Universes is a mind-bending tour across parallel worlds, each an answer to the question of what Raffi’s life would be like if they had made slightly different choices. The universes grow increasingly strange as Raffi flees the ever-present specter of guilt: women fracture into hordes of animals; alien-possessed bears prowl apocalyptic landscapes. But across worlds, Raffi—with their sometimes-friends, sometimes-lovers Britt, Kay, and Graham—reaches for a life that feels authentically their own.

Blending realism with science fiction, In Universes explores the thirst for genius, the fluidity of gender and identity, and the pull of despair against the desire to lead a meaningful life, insisting on the transgressive power of hope even in the darkest of times.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798874622886
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	04/30/2024
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Emet North has lived in a dozen states over the past decade and has no fixed residence, though they feel most at home in the mountains. In previous lives, they've worked in an observational cosmology lab on a grant from NASA, taught snowboarding in Montana, researched Lie algebras, led wine tastings in Virginia, waited tables, trained horses, and wrote a thesis on the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. They translate from Spanish to English with a particular focus on queer and trans voices and are always looking for new projects.

Natalie Naudus is a Taiwanese American actor who started out as an opera singer, with a master of music from the University of North Texas. She has a passion for stories and characters, and her language training has allowed her to develop a skill for accents and convincing foreign language dialogue. She excels at unique character voices and passionate storytelling. She lives in Virginia with her husband and two daughters.

Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkers series from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFile Earphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.

Editorial Reviews

[A] time-bending, mind-expanding novel.”
— People

“[A] moving, fracturing debut . . . . In elegant, precise prose, North balances the loss and uncertainty of Raffi’s varied existences with tenderness and sheer possibility.”  — Esquire, Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024

“In Universes is a magical, bighearted, genre-jumping ode to queerness and the breaking and re-making of reality.” — Bustle, “This Spring’s Most Anticipated Books”

“A soul-stirring debut. . . . This crackling chronicle of queer love is a must read.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

“In the sci-fi/literary novel In Universes, the Sliding Doors peek into the road not taken becomes real. . . . Dizzying, romantic and a handy primer on the multiverse.” — Parade, Best New Book Releases

"Raffi, a non-binary physicist studying dark matter, is the protagonist in this beautifully strange multiverse novel. Like all brilliant science fiction, In Universes uses its speculative premise to investigate hard questions about our so-called real world. . . . Emet North’s debut is a stunner, announcing their arrival in queer SF with a (big) bang." — Autostraddle, The Best Queer Books of 2024

"In Universes is an explosion of creative beauty and heart. Emet North is a massively talented writer arriving ready to awe." — Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Chain-Gang All-Stars

"Emet North beautifully fractures the veil between genres, weaving a kaleidoscopic journey of identity, love, and the choices that make us. This is a multiverse where both tender and painful childhood memories echo through the dark matter of adulthood and finds its way to post-apocalyptic gardens of the dead. An assured and wildly imaginative debut that never loses its heart in any of its realities." — Sequoia Nagamatsu, bestselling author of How High We Go in the Dark 

“Daring, brilliant, and revelatory, In Universes scatters its characters’ stories across the multiverse, showing us every one of the infinite lives we might live. It’s a miracle of physics and art, filled with wonder and grief, hope and regret, survival and romance and loss. By its end, we know: the best of all possible worlds is this one where we get to read Emet North’s writing.” — Julia Phillips, bestselling author of Disappearing Earth

“This spellbinding novel moves across infinitely branching realities to uncover the deepest truths about our relationships. . . . While darkness lurks across worlds and in dangerous choices, this is ultimately a hopeful view of the power of human connection, no matter the cost or the reality.” — Booklist

"In Universes is a dazzling and inventive exploration of the many people we might become, the possibilities we might discover, and the heartbreak we can't run from. This novel is a breathtaking introduction to a brilliant new voice." — Danielle Evans, award-winning author of The Office of Historical Corrections 

“Pronouns shift gracefully over the course of the novel from “she” to “they”—the plural encompassing both the experience of Raffi’s ever-evolving gender identity, as well as the many versions of themselves across the multiverse. The book works in the Whitmanesque sense of multitudes; it works in the Moore-ish Anagram sense; it works because the writing is elegant and wise and dripping with heart-rending beauty about the feelings of being in and out of time, place, body, and love.” — Electric Literature

“Bafflingly good. In Universes is an exhilarating, disorienting fabulist extravaganza to which we can only, and happily, submit. But it is also, secretly—and brilliantly—kind of a meta-novel about the melancholia of science fiction itself.” — Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of the Fox

“This book really took my breath away!”
— Gabrielle Korn, author of Yours for the Taking and The Shutouts

“North’s book is absolutely of the contemporary moment, fresh and surprising. . . . Displaying a deep humanism, lacking any kind of tendentious impulses, it explores the socially-embedded variable sexuality, and matters of will and kismet, of its protagonist with a kind of amiable, melancholy curiosity. . . .North’s prose throughout every section is both understated and poetic, full of gravitas yet unpretentious. . . . In the end, North’s debut novel succeeds in conveying the mutability and precariousness of existence.” — Locus Magazine

“North’s debut is a surreal sci-fi-tinged book about parallel worlds and trying to find a place to fit in. It is unlike anything else I’ve ever read. In Universes completely left my jaw on the floor and moved me in ways a book hasn’t made me feel in a long time.” — Debutiful 

“Beautiful and surreal, In Universes is a tenderly-crafted maze that brims with emotion—despair and regret, love and hope—as it wrestles with the endless seeking of self and the ‘what-ifs’ that define a life.”  — Fonda Lee, author of The Green Bone Saga and winner of the World Fantasy Award

"In Universes has a wonderous way of taking the full expanse of the heart (vast! unending!) and collapsing it into a jeweled beauty you can hold in your hands. This novel is brainy and surprising and—in a cartwheeling, star-spinning way—completely real." — Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal

"In a feat of narrative structure both dazzling and convincing, North gives us deep and emotionally complex access to one human being’s journey across the multiverse, makes us think deeply about our own unchosen doorways, redefines realism as they kick its ass. In Universes is a wonder of a novel." — Pam Houston, author of Deep Creek: Finding Hope In the High Country

“North’s debut novel is an inventive, mind-bending literary science fiction that delves into mental health, queerness, Judaism, love, and more as it explores parallel universes. . . .this slim novel is a wonderfully immersive and vivid read.”  — IGN

“A multilayered look at the infinite possibilities of one’s actions, In Universes gives the reader much more than the usual sci-fi multiverse scenario shenanigans we’ve come to associate with Star Trek or the MCU. Emet North’s debut is, in fact, quite stunning.”  — buzz mag (UK)

“Quantum mechanics takes centre stage in In Universes, where a physicist named Raffi finds themselves bouncing through alternate realities. This novel explores the implications of parallel timelines and the choices that define our lives, all while maintaining a deeply personal and emotional core.” — Women and Home Magazine (South Africa), 6 Sci-Fi Books You Need to Read This Year

“In Universes is an achingly tender examination of a what if – a character study that follows Raffi from universe to universe, possibility to possibility. . . . [this] is a deceptively delicate book, its gorgeous prose and restrained storylines slowly unspooling to reveal a powerful, poignant whole. . . . North fully embraces every creative freedom that parallel universes afford. In their hands, anything is possible.” — Starburst (UK)

“This is a hopeful and meaningful novel that asks readers to reconsider their own pasts, presents, and futures. . . In Universes is perfect for sci-fi fans, and those [who] may be new to the genre.” — Screen Rant, 15 Best Sci-Fi Books of 2024

From the Publisher

Raffi and Britt are queer and extremely intelligent. Both are portrayed well by Natalie Naudus and Xe Sands. As a cosmologist, Raffi is searching for dark matter and longs to spend every free moment with Britt, a queer sculptor. Naudus and Sands provide strong performances in this speculative fiction, which explores parallel worlds; complex women who fracture into hordes of animals; gender identity and fluidity; past, present, and future selves; and personal desires and dreams. The narrators' unique voices provide an ample variety of pitches and pacing as they portray the two main characters. Although the complex plot is not always easy to follow, this wild science fiction novel is a pleasant listening experience. C.F. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2024 - AudioFile