** Longlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize 2026 ** ** Winner of the University of Sydney’s People’s Choice Award ** ** Longlisted for the Stella Prize ** **Shortlisted for the NSW Pr
** Longlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize 2026 ** ** Winner of the University of Sydney’s People’s Choice Award ** ** Longlisted for the Stella Prize ** **Shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Christina Stead Prize **
In late-21st-century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside an immersive, consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile, their aging 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.
Stunning and spellbinding, Every Version of You unpicks the ties between life and technology to ask what truly makes us human, and what in our world is worth preserving. Perfect for fans of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.
'Set in the 2080s, this Australian debut maps the sci-fi question in a quiet romantic drama – asking what ties us to the world and each other' - GUARDIAN (AUSTRALIA)
'It's like Ready Player One meets Station Eleven and Ex Machina, and it's the book I can't stop thinking about' - TIME OUT
'Quietly brilliant... A clever and thoughtful novel that sprawls out of its tightly observed, intimate beginnings into a big-picture look at humanity's future' - NEW SCIENTIST
'Draw two timelines: the relentless degradation of the planet along one; a seamless interface with utopian digital space along the other. This disturbing, unflinching and emotionally-charged story explores the point of convergence' - DAILY MAIL
'Strange and terrifying... A must-read for fans of sf and dystopia' - BOOKLIST
'A meditative, gorgeous, endlessly imaginative take on the future of virtual reality and what it means to be human, as well as a deeply tender story of love and the immigrant experience... A transcendent debut' - GRACE D LI, author of Portrait of a Thief
'The haunting images in Every Version of You followed me long after I turned the final page… Chan is a vivid, insightful storyteller' - ELIZABETH TAN, author of Smart Ovens for Lonely People
