How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

With only TAMMY - a slightly tearful computer with self-esteem issues - a software boss called Phil - Microsoft Middle Manager 3.0 - and an imaginary dog called Ed for company, fixing time machines is a lonely business and Charles Yu is stuck in a rut. He's spent the better part of a decade navel-gazing, spying on 39 different versions of himself in alternate universes (and discovered that 35 of them are total jerks). And he's kind of fallen in love with TAMMY, which is bad because she doesn't have a module for that. With all that's on his mind, perhaps it's no surprise that when he meets his future self, he shoots him in the stomach. And that's a beginner's mistake for a time machine repairman. Now he's stuck in a time loop, going in circles forever. All he has, wrapped in brown paper, is the book his future self was trying to press into his hands. It's called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. And he's the author. And somewhere inside it is the information that could save him.

Charles Yu was born in Los Angeles. His fiction has been published in a number of magazines and literary journals. In 2007, he was selected by the National Book Foundation as one of its '5 Under 35' a program which asks five previous National Book Award fiction Winners and Finalists to select one fiction under 35 writer whose work they find particularly exciting. Yu was selected for the honour by Richard Powers. This is his first novel.