Every Version of You

'Asks what it is to be human. Visceral, mind-bending and tender.' - Inga Simpson

In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside a hyper-immersive, hyper-consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their ageing bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments. Across the city, in the abandoned real world, Tao-Yi's mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia

When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi must decide what is most important: a digital future, or an authentic past.

Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Murakami surrealism thrown in, this is speculative literary fiction at its best.

About the Author

Grace Chan is a speculative fiction writer and doctor. Her writing explores brains, minds, technology, space, and narrative identity.

Her short fiction can be found in Clarkesworld, Going Down Swinging, Aurealis, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine, and many other places. She has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Awards, the Norma K Hemming Award, and Viva la Novella.

The other version of Grace works in psychiatry. She has a longstanding interest in psychology, neuroscience, consciousness, empathy, ethics, and the mind-body relationship. Every Version of You is her first novel.

About the Illustrator

Rachel is an artist and writer who makes comics. Their work has been published by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, ku! and Australian periodicals like The Age and Meanjin. Rachel's first book, Swimsuit (Glom Press, 2018), won a Silver Ledger Award for Excellence in Comics and Graphic Novels. Their next book, provisionally titled What You Seek (Is Seeking You) will be published by Drawn and Quarterly in 2024. Rachel is represented by Danielle Binks at Jacinta Dimase Management.