Experiments in Belief

From Kazakhstan to Senegal to Hong Kong, from the 1970s to the mid-21st century, these early stories by one of America's most unpredictable writers anticipate the hyperconnected transcultural world of today. Whether we see parents using medication to cure their child of being gay, scientists in Africa valuing data on malaria more than a child's life, 10-year-old boys making bombs from "match heads," or a wife in Iran tormented by the discovery that her husband smuggles alcohol, the characters in these stories believe in something. They seek to do good, even when the conditions of their lives are inscrutable, and from their many struggles emerges a map of the dangers and possibilities of the new century, which was the stuff of science fiction when these stories were written.


Experiments in Belief collects the output of a young writer on the verge of a career in video games and in the early stages of writing the multi-faced novel, γ, woven from many of the voices and ideas first seen here.