Every Version of You | Grace Chan

 

Set against the backdrop of the planet’s failing ecosystems in late-21st-century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside an immersive, consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile, their ageing bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments.

Across the city, in the abandoned real world, Tao-Yi’s mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia.

When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi must decide what is most important: a digital future or an authentic past.

This spellbinding novel unpicks the ties between life and technology to ask what truly makes us human, and what in our world is worth preserving.

Brilliant, clever and thoughtful.

Longlisted for the Climate Fiction Prize 2026