MULTI-VERSAL FICTION: Peng Shepherd’s ambitious new novel, All This & More. . . | The Atlantic

Multiverses capture the thrill of seeing a single life dilated into countless permutations. 

Picture Superman having to choose between versions of the Daily Planet building from six different universes. The windows, fixtures, and designs of the buildings vary, but they’re more similar than different. To which reality does Superman belong? All of them? None?

September 6, 2024, 7 AM ET

The Allure of Living a Radically Different Life
What the proliferation of multiverses in pop culture reveals

By Stephen Kearse
IMAGE: Nico Krijno

"Superman’s nerve-racking choice, a typical comic-book scenario, epitomizes the woozy and weighty mood of multiversal fiction.

After decades as a common premise in comics, the trope has in recent years taken root in movies, television, and literature. Stories with multiverses turn choice into trippy transit, spiriting characters through realities that differ from their own in slight but significant ways. 

These journeys through infinity often overwhelm the wee travelers’ psyche. “I want to know whether my decisions matter!” shouts a distraught character in Ted Chiang’s 2019 short story “Anxiety Is the Dizziness of Freedom.” At its core, the multiverse is like an omniscient crystal ball that displays all fortunes rather than just one.

Such limitless vision proves fraught in Peng Shepherd’s ambitious new novel, All This & More. 

The book’s alternate realities abound with traps and secrets that trouble the main character’s quest for self-realization. 

Shepherd uses the multiverse to explore the ways identity can both form and fragment in a single moment. 

At the story’s center is a reality-TV show (which shares a name with the book) that offers participants the opportunity to make a series of different decisions from any point in their past and thus pursue a radically divergent life. . ."

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Signed personalized copies

All This and More

By Peng Shepherd
PEOPLE Magazine’s “Best Books of July!”
Jordy’s Book Club August Pick
Gold House Book Club July Pick

An LA Times “Most Anticipated Book of Summer”
A Goodreads “Most Anticipated Summer Book”
A Lithub “July’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book”
A Bustle “Most Anticipated Book of Summer”
A Town & Country  “Best Book to Read This July”
An IGN “Must-Read Sci-Fi and Fantasy Book of July”
A Gizmodo “July Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy Book” Pick
A New Scientist “July Best New Science Fiction Book”
A Screen Rant “10 Most-Anticipated Sci-Fi Books”

“Just when you think you’ve got a handle on where it’s going, something forces you to rethink everything you think you knew. Shepherd’s latest deserves to be a smash hit.” —Booklist

“Expect cliffhangers, plot twists, and existential questions that will linger in your mind, long after you’ve read the last page.” —Bustle

“All This and More as to be on the top of your summer reading list. A powerful, thought-provoking story about the choices we wish we made.” —Town & Country

“A tantalizing and well-knit story.” —Publishers Weekly

“Brilliant, brilliant.” –Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Peng Shepherd… is the real deal.” —Elle

From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Cartographers and The Book of M comes an inventive new novel about a woman who wins the chance to rewrite every mistake she’s ever made… and how far she’ll go to find her elusive “happily ever after.”
But there’s a twist: the reader gets to decide what she does next to change her fate.
One woman. Endless options. Every choice has consequences.

Meek, play-it-safe Marsh has just turned forty-five, and her life is in shambles. Her career is stagnant, her marriage has imploded, and her teenage daughter grows more distant by the day. Marsh is convinced she’s missed her chance at everything—romance, professional fulfillment, and adventure—and is desperate for a do-over.
She can’t believe her luck when she’s selected to be the star of the global sensation All This and More, a show that uses quantum technology to allow contestants the chance to revise their past and change their present lives. It’s Marsh’s only shot to seize her dreams, and she’s determined to get it right this time.
But even as she rises to become a famous lawyer, gets back together with her high school sweetheart, and travels the world, she begins to worry that All This and More’s promises might be too good to be true. Because while the technology is amazing, something seems a bit off.…

Reviews
“This is such a wonderful tale: it has a fascinating cast of characters, a can’t-miss idea, and a story that is absolutely spellbinding. It’s one of those novels that, just when you think you’ve got a handle on where it’s going, something forces you to rethink everything you think you knew. Shepherd’s latest
deserves to be a smash hit.” — Booklist, starred review

“If you were the type of kid who loved the choose-your-own-adventure books, Peng Shepherd’s newest, All This and More, has to be on the top of your summer reading list. A powerful, thought-provoking story about the choices we wish we made.”
— Town & Country

“In All This and More, a disillusioned, 40-something woman participates in a gameshow that promises to grant her a second chance. If it’s anything like Shepherd’s previous books, expect cliffhangers, plot twists, and existential questions that will linger in your mind, long after you’ve read the last page.” — Bustle

“Shepherd returns with another clever novel that plays with time and space. …Marsh’s fate is in [your] hands.” — Los Angeles Times

“In Shepherd’s imaginative latest, [w]hichever path readers take, they’ll find a tantalizing and well-knit story.” — Publishers Weekly

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

What if you got a do-over for your entire life? This unique take on a choose your own adventure story asks what it means to create change — and whether or not you should. This is perfect for readers who loved the big-heartedness of Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow.

From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Cartographers and The Book of M comes an inventive new novel about a woman who wins the chance to rewrite every mistake she’s ever made… and how far she’ll go to find her elusive “happily ever after.” But there’s a twist: the reader gets to decide what she does next to change her fate.

One woman. Endless options. Every choice has consequences.

Meek, play-it-safe Marsh has just turned forty-five, and her life is in shambles. Her career is stagnant, her marriage has imploded, and her teenage daughter grows more distant by the day. Marsh is convinced she’s missed her chance at everything—romance, professional fulfillment, and adventure—and is desperate for a do-over.

She can’t believe her luck when she’s selected to be the star of the global sensation All This and More, a show that uses quantum technology to allow contestants the chance to revise their pasts and change their present lives. It’s Marsh’s only shot to seize her dreams, and she’s determined to get it right this time.

But even as she rises to become a famous lawyer, gets back together with her high school sweetheart, and travels the world, she begins to worry that All This and More’s promises might be too good to be true. Because while the technology is amazing, something seems a bit off.…

Can Marsh really make her life everything she wants it to be? And is it worth it?

Perfect for fans of Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library and Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, bestselling author Peng Shepherd’s All This and More is an utterly original, startlingly poignant novel that puts the reader in the driver’s seat.