Points of Departure

Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award: Nineteen stories of power and humanity from a science fiction master with otherworldly talent

In a small house in the desert, a chimp named Rachel watches Tarzan on TV. Although her body is an ape’s, her mind is something different—a hybrid between those of a chimpanzee and a young girl. When his wife and child died, the doctor who created Rachel implanted his daughter’s brain into that of the chimp. Rachel remembers the jungle; she remembers high school. And when her father passes away, she will embark on the adventure of a lifetime.

The Nebula Award–winning novella “Rachel in Love” anchors this haunting collection of stories from Pat Murphy, whose electric imagination is a testament to how wonderful science fiction can be. Her characters struggle with alien lovers, vegetative wives, and the burden of seeing into the future. And always, like Rachel, they search for something more: not just what it means to be human, but what it is to be alive.