Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

And Again: A Novel
And Again: A Novel
And Again: A Novel
Audiobook9 hours

And Again: A Novel

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

What would you do if you had a second chance at life?

Hannah, David, Connie, and Linda have been given the second chance of a lifetime—genetically perfect bodies as part of a medically advanced pilot program seeking FDA approval. Their new bodies are exact replicas of their old selves—without the deadly illnesses they suffered from. Even better, their imperfections have been erased. Blemishes, scars, and wrinkles have all disappeared, their bodies are pristine, their vision is impeccable.

Yet the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have no memories. Hannah, an artistic prodigy, has to relearn how to hold a brush; David, a Congressman, grapples with his old habits; Connie, an actress whose stunning looks are restored after a protracted illness, tries to navigate an industry obsessed with physical beauty; and Linda, who spent eight years paralyzed after a car accident, now struggles to reconnect with a family that seems to have built a new life without her.

As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships, they are faced with the question: how much of who you are rests not just in your mind, but in your heart and your body? In the spirit of Never Let Me Go and The Age of Miracles, And Again is an exciting debut about identity, second chances, and the courage to start life afresh.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJan 12, 2016
ISBN9781442393646
Author

Jessica Chiarella

Jessica Chiarella is the author of the novel And Again, which was the August 2016 Target Book Club Pick. She holds an MA in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside. Her second novel, The Lost Girls, is forthcoming from Putnam in July of 2021. She lives in Chicago with her dog, Leia.

Related to And Again

Related audiobooks

Science Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for And Again

Rating: 3.7413793448275863 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

58 ratings7 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Four terminally ill patients are given a new chance of life as part of a pilot program called SUBlife. Their new cloned bodies are perfect without any of their former blemishes scars, freckles or lines. Their memories are there but the physical memories aren't. Each chapter is told from the view of each of the patients.This is an impressive debut novel for Jessica Chiarella. I look forward to her future novels. Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Enjoyable listening to beautiful prose, deep and meaningful observations.
    I felt up lifted.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I listened to this one on audio and the four separate narrators really helped to distinguish the characters in my mind. Connie, David, Hannah, and Linda have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, in which each person's memories now reside in a newly-minted, cloned replica of themselves. They are physically unblemished and perfect, without freckles, wrinkles, scars or unwanted weight. But what about mentally? Are they still the person they once were? How closely is who we are tied to our physical body? Yes, you could say this is science fiction, but more importantly it is morally exciting. It made me laugh and cry and frown. Not very many books can claim that. A very intriguing debut novel, thought-provoking with clever twists and turns--I couldn't put it down! Recommended.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I recieved an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

    Four people with serious health problems are given the opportunity to transfer their brain cells to a perfect clone of their body. There are no freckles, no scars, no horrible pains from their previous body. For one year they must allow doctors to study their bodies and control their medical decisions. They must also meet with one another in a support group, where they find their physical identities have left them, their bodies are not used to their old skills, their relationships feel unnatural. Given this chance to live life again, it isn't as perfect a chance as they once thought.

    Oh my goodness! This book! I wasn't sure what to expect, but this bit of genius was not it. The four characters, Hannah, David, Linda, and Connie, have left behind their previously dying bodies in exchange for new, limber bodies. While their brains have moved with them, they feel disconnected from this body they are now in. What they think will be a chance to live their life once again becomes a chance to just re-live. Their previous habits haven't died, though their bodily skills have. While Hannah cannot pick up a paint brush like she once could, David finds himself still cheating on his wife and desiring cigarettes. I mostly appreciated the lives of Linda and Connie, how different their lives became after the exchange. I wanted so badly to hold onto Linda as she fought with wanting the simplicity of her old life, one one for no and two for yes. I wanted Connie to break the cycle, to see that beauty wasn't all that should have defined her life. I so loved how Jessica Chiarella tackled the subject of cloning and giving four people new chances at life without a handbook. The questions, the stumbles, and the adjustment to the body and life were written so well. It made me think a lot; how do you go from being ill for so long, relying on those around you, planning your own death, to having life handed back to you, in a perfect form?

    "...and tell her see, see, look at me, and how much I have seen, and I still am no wiser than you, little girl."

    While I didn't agree with several of the characters, I ended up falling in love and rooting for them. I really appreciated the pace of the book until a little over halfway through, it sped up and I felt like I lost the characters. Their lives became simple, instead of the complex way it had started. I do like that they are lost a lot, only to find a new path, a new way to live, and new thoughts once they evaluated their life from this new perspective.

    While the genre is science fiction, I feel this is more a character study, a look at a person's own self worth. There are four characters and their lives do cross paths, but you read from their alternating POV's and take a look into their lives individually. There is very little talk about cloning, outside of FDA approval, but a lot of discussion on personal perspective. There are a slew of emotions found in this book and you will find yourself feeling alongside the character. I found And Again, and all the questions it poses, so fascinating and very well written. I would definitely recommend this book to just about anyone.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Four terminally ill patients are chosen by lottery (more or less) to participate in a secret medical research project: They are cloned and surgery is done to transfer their memories and personality to their new bodies. They are given new bodies and sent back to pick up the pieces of their former lives. The four patients are very different from each other: A tattooed and wildly talented painter who was stricken with an aggressive form of lung cancer; a Chinese-American woman who has spent the past eight years in a waking coma, paralyzed from the nose down and unable to speak; a beautiful soap-opera actress who picked up a drug-resistant strain of AIDS from injecting heroin; and a slimy Republican politician with an inoperable brain tumor. They have nothing in common but the mode of their saving, and they each deal with the stresses of being "born again" in different ways. Author Chiarella does a great job making us understand and empathize with each character, and even though she shifts the viewpoint among the four of them it is never confusing or hard to follow. I found it impossible not to try to imagine how I would react to being in their shoes, and it wasn't an entirely comfortable thing to do. I'm glad I read it, and I expect I'll be thinking about it for a while.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a debut novel that really feels like a debut novel - Chiarella's writing style is interesting but she's playing with ideas that have been explored often enough already to feel predictable and a bit tired. I'll look for her future work, as I think she has better things coming, but wouldn't tell friends to rush out and pick up this novel.Premise: 4 terminally ill people participate in a medical trial where their consciousnesses are implanted in healthy clone versions of themselves. Typically, there's an artist who loses her "muse" after transfer and who has a journalist boyfriend who betrays her confidence and reports on the study; there's a philandering republican politician who pulled strings to be included in the trial and who has a conniving villain for a wife; there's a failed actress who uses her sex appeal for money because she was abused as a child...nothing is particularly insightful, it's all cliche theater.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.In my normal course of fiction reading, I almost never read sci-fi. But this was no ordinary sci-fi novel. I wouldn't really even categorize it as sci-fi. It was very cerebral and incredibly thought-provoking. I really enjoyed it."And Again" focuses on four characters - Connie, David, Hannah, and Linda - who were selected for the SUBlife pilot program, in which their terminally ill bodies are replaced with genetically perfect ones. Each chapter in the book is told from the viewpoint of one of the characters. It was really eye-opening to see that what started out as a fairly straightforward scientific experiment turns out to be just as complicated as the human mind.The book really makes you think: Is your body just a functional part of you, completely separate from your mind? So what happens if you replace your body? Are you still the same person because you still have the same mind?Well-written, with very good character development and set at a comfortable pace, "And Again" is an impressive debut novel.