What does it mean to be human?

GenevaShort story collections don't come in handy. This is a maxim in the publishing world that many authors try to overthrow. Ted Chiang is one such exponent in the science fiction genre. Throughout the eight stories contained in The story of your life and other stories, the American author of Chinese origin elegantly transports us to completely plausible and familiar environments, sometimes magical, always incorporating a component of criticism and reflection on our place in the Universe and the future of our society.

Chiang is one of those intellectual authors who is as comfortable discussing science as he is philosophy, religion, or linguistics. It is precisely within this latter theme that the story that gives the book its title and which inspired the film is framed. Arrival, by Denis Villeneuve. In some of the stories, we'll feel transported to imaginary worlds that will remind us of some of Borges' own stories, who, according to the American writer, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration.

The worst thing about Ted Chiang is that his work is very short. In The story of your life and other stories, we can only add his second collection of nine stories, Exhalation, which follows the essence and style of its first publication. Both publications have received the most prestigious awards in the genre and are published in Catalan by Mai Més.

Chiang's stories are black holes that trap you in an infinite and eternal depth.