by Ben Lerner, Keith Waldrop, Aaron Kunin, Rosemarie Waldrop
First published 2019
Robert Klein works as an archivist preserving fragmented records in a nameless city where information disintegrates faster than it can be recorded. Each day, he rescues scattered documents from deteriorating archives, knowing that entire histories vanish with each lost page. When a massive data purge threatens to eliminate decades of accumulated knowledge, Klein must devise an unconventional method to preserve critical fragments before they disappear forever. His increasingly desperate preservation attempts draw suspicion from municipal bureaucrats who prefer clean erasure to messy historical complexity. Klein risks everything—his position, his safety, and potentially his freedom—to keep impossible windows of memory from closing completely.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: bureaucracy, information-loss, preservation
Setting: Nameless City
Period: 21st-Century
392 pages · Paperback · Wave Books