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Ecco
July 2015
On Sale: July 7, 2015
336 pages
ISBN: 0062391194
EAN: 9780062391193
Kindle: B00N0WUPKU
Hardcover / e-Book
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Science Fiction
A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligenceβilluminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding. In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive. A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friendβs mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls. Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gapsβto estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and humanβshrinking rapidly with todayβs technological advancesβechoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.
 Media BuzzNews at 4: Wednesday Reads - August 12, 2015
All Things Considered - July 4, 2015
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