Stories of your life and others / Ted Chiang.

"Originally published: New York : Tor, c2002" -- Verso title page.

Tower of Babylon -- Understand -- Division by Zero -- Story of Your Life -- Seventy-Two Letters -- The Evolution of Human Science -- Hell is the Absence of God -- Liking What You See: A Documentary -- Story Notes.

"Soon to be a major motion picture starring Amy Adams. Combining the precision and scientific curiosity of Kim Stanley Robinson with Lorrie Moore's cool, clear love of language and narrative intricacy, this award-winning collection offers readers the dual delights of the very, very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar. Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change--the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens--while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story, a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection. A clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicles a college's initiative to "turn off" the human ability to recognize beauty in "Liking What You See: A Documentary." With sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty and constant change, and also by beauty and wonder"--

"Stories of Your Life and Others is a collection of masterpieces and recently it has taken Hollywood by storm. The lead story in the collection will soon to be a major motion picture starring Amy Adams, while another story has been optioned by Fox and is in development. Offering readers the dual delights of the very strange and the heartbreakingly familiar, Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change. In the amazing and much-lauded "Story of Your Life," a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her new knowledge of an alien language and its nonlinear structure. In "Liking What You See: A Documentary," a clever pastiche of news reports and interviews chronicle a college's initiative to turn off the human ability to recognize beauty. In "Understand," a young man has an amazing reaction to an experimental drug used to heal brain damage. In each story, with sharp intelligence and humor, Chiang examines what it means to be alive in a world marked by uncertainty, but also by wonder"--