Nominated for the 2013 Nebula Award in the short-story category
Two big messages are intertwined in this short, dense and punchy story by Tom Crosshill. Two messages connected by a common the goodbye – the goodbye to our beloved as they get old and disappear, and the daily goodbye to what we are, due to a process of transformation and fragmentation, that's getting faster and deeper; if it’s true that the cells in our body are renewed every seven years and we cannot be anymore what we were even in one of them, what happens when we cause the transformations and continuous fragmentation of our body and mind? And when we get to the point of fragmenting even death? In what dark betrayals of ourselves will the desire to live forever lead us? A dazzling story, that you will never forget.
"Tom Crosshill is a major new writer with a powerful vision. I fully expect him to become one of the biggest breakout authors of the decade!" - David Farland, New York Times bestselling author of the Runelords series, Writers of the Future 1987 Gold Prize winner, and Hugo- and Nebula-award nominee
"Crosshill manages to interweave powerful, often beautiful human poignancy into stories of complex technology and scientific wonder. And he makes it look effortless! This is hard science fiction with a soul." - N.K. Jemisin, Hugo- and Nebula-nominated author of The Inheritance Trilogy, winner of the Locus Award
The Tom Crosshill is an award-winning writer of science fiction, fantasy and young adult literature. His works have won the Writers of the Future award and been nominated for the Nebula Award (thrice) and the Latvian Literature Award. He was a Resident Fellow at the International Writing Program (University of Iowa). His debut novel "Salsa for Fidel" is forthcoming from Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins) in 2016. After many years spent in the US, he now lives in his native Latvia.
Tom Crosshill's fiction has been nominated for the Nebula Award (thrice) as well as the Latvian Annual Literature Award. His stories have appeared in venues such as Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and Lightspeed. In 2009, he won the Writers of the Future contest. After some years spent in Oregon and New York, he currently lives in his native Latvia. In the past, he has operated a nuclear reactor, translated books and worked in a zinc mine, among other things.
Tom's young adult novel "The Cat King of Havana" is forthcoming from Katherine Tegen Books (HarperCollins) in 2016.