Helen Schulman, "The Beautiful Life"

"Helen Schulman discusses her book, "The Beautiful Life", at Politics and Prose.

Schulman’s This Beautiful Life dramatized how a videotaped misjudgment could wreak havoc in a family. Her new novel explores what happens when technology gives us access to the lives we might have lived, had we made different choices. When Donny, a young prodigy, develops an algorithm that allows people to experience their multiverses, he tries it out on Amy. The mother of three and wife of a journalist whose career has stalled, Amy is skeptical, but gives it a try. Meanwhile, to get himself out of his rut, her husband goes to Japan with a glamorous photographer to cover Fukushima. Combining timeless issues of loyalty and betrayal with the wild card of powerful new digital tools, Schulman’s intriguing fiction looks at life on the frontier of new realities. Schulman is in conversation with Susan Coll, author most recently of The Stager.

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Produced by Tom Warren