Exhalation

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others – the basis for the Academy Award nominated film Arrival – comes a groundbreaking second collection of short fiction: nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories.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 the
temptation of second chances. In the epistolary ‘Exhalation’, an alien
scientist makes a shocking discovery with ramifications not just for his
own people, but for all of reality. And in ‘The Lifecycle of Software
Objects’, a woman cares for an artificial intelligence over twenty
years, elevating a faddish digital pet into what might be a true living
being. Also included are two previously unpublished stories: ‘Omphalos’
and ‘Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom’.In Exhalation,
Ted Chiang wrestles with the oldest questions on earth – What is the
nature of the universe? What does it mean to be human? – and ones that
no one else has even imagined. And, each in its own way, the stories
prove that complex and thoughtful science fiction can rise to new
heights of beauty, meaning, and compassion.