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Wither
- Author
- Dan Warner
- Narrator
- Mike Chamberlain
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 29 September 2026
- Run Time
- 9 hours 22 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
For readers of Jeff VanderMeer and Paul Tremblay, Wither is a propulsive, darkly funny literary sci-fi debut about technology, privacy, and humanity in transition.
The algorithm has a will of its own.
We were obsessed with technology.
Now, technology is obsessed with us.
Before he went off the grid, Mick had a plan: get a high-powered job, escape flyover country, and leave his past behind.
Then he met Regression. A black-box technology that builds a person's perfect digital twin. Every piece of data. Every secret. Every mistake. The greatest invention since fire. And Mick gets to test it out in a remote Ozark town.
A year later, Mick is clawing his way out of the woods, haunted by the act of violence that sent him into hiding. But when he gets back to Bloom, Missouri, he finds a ghost town with cars still in the driveways and cans in the cupboards, like everyone just walked away. Mick will leave, too, as soon as he finds his girlfriend, Alison, earns forgiveness, and finds Regression before it finds him first.
Critics Review
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Wither is a cautionary tale that pleads with readers to better understand what they’re doing by trusting AI while touching something relatable: the desire to make a difference and have a legacy worth leaving.
Booklist
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Wither is both frightening and provocative, a cautionary tale about technological utopias.
California Review of Books
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A propulsive, grimly funny novel about technology, privacy, and humanity’s growing reliance on algorithms.
Library Journal
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Stories like this remind us of what we give up when we give ourselves over to machines.
Science magazine
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As an act of gothic prophecy Wither is deliriously unsettling--as a work of satirical brilliance, Wither is a staggering achievement. Warner’s debut is an irresistible enchantment of the bleakest, funniest kind.
Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of THE BRIEF AND WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO and THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE HER
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Wither is superb. Absolutely captivating and brutally clear-eyed. What a horribly crisp mirror of a book. I loved it.
Sarah Gailey, bestselling author of SPREAD ME and MAKE ME BETTER
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Wither hits the ground running and doesn't slow until it's chilling final words. Dan Warner has written a smart, timely thriller that explores the nature of identity in ways that left me deeply unsettled.
Dan Chaon, bestselling author of ILL WILL
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Dan Warner
- Narrator
- Mike Chamberlain
- Duration
- 9 hours 22 minutes
- Release Date
- 29 September 2026
- ISBN
- 9781639736423
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Fiction: literary and general non-genre, Science fiction: near future
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Wither by Dan Warner, read by Mike Chamberlain. For readers of Jeff VanderMeer and Paul Tremblay, Wither is a propulsive, darkly funny literary sci-fi debut about technology, privacy, and humanity in transition.The algorithm has a will of its own.We were obsessed with technology.Now, technology is obsessed with us.Before he went off the grid, Mick had a plan: get a high-powered job, escape flyover country, and leave his past behind.Then he met Regression. A black-box technology that builds a person's perfect digital twin. Every piece of data. Every secret. Every mistake. The greatest invention since fire. And Mick gets to test it out in a remote Ozark town.A year later, Mick is clawing his way out of the woods, haunted by the act of violence that sent him into hiding. But when he gets back to Bloom, Missouri, he finds a ghost town with cars still in the driveways and cans in the cupboards, like everyone just walked away. Mick will leave, too, as soon as he finds his girlfriend, Alison, earns forgiveness, and finds Regression before it finds him first.
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