Eric Heisserer, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Arrival, visits the store to discuss his new novel, Simultaneous, a phenomenal speculative thriller about a federal agent and a therapist who team up to stop an otherworldly killer. He is joined in conversation by Ted Chiang, author of Stories of Your Life and Others and Exhalation: Stories.
Federal agent Grant Lukather works for an unknown department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics. They look for patterns in tips and chatter to prevent a terrorist event before it happens. One of these calls, about a possible explosion in New Mexico, leads Grant to a case with unimaginable consequences.
He meets Sarah Newcomb, a therapist who uses past-life hypnosis in her treatment but has recently stumbled upon a phenomenon that seems to defy logic. Grant follows this thread to another crime: a copycat killer case in Colorado. With the help of one of Sarah’s patients, they embark upon an investigation that spans multiple states, timelines, and consciousnesses. With limited time and only a tenuous grasp of how this phenomenon works, the unlikely trio are in a race for their lives—past, present, and future.
Full of thrilling reveals, stunning plot twists, and a mordant sense of humor, Simultaneous is a mind-bending, one-of-a-kind thriller by a true genre star.
Eric Heisserer is the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of Arrival (2016) and the creator of the Netflix series Shadow & Bone. He lives in Los Angeles.
Ted Chiang is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, six Locus awards, and the PEN Malamud Award. His novella “Story of Your Life” was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). His most recent short story collection, Exhalation (Knopf, 2019), was listed as one of the Top Ten Books of 2019 by The New York Times, and included in President Barack Obama’s 2019 reading list. In 2023, he was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.
