Stay This Day
and Night with Me
Belén Gopegui (Spain)
City Lights Books – 2023
From reviews of Stay This Day and Night with Me
“Gopegui’s novel brilliantly steps into the middle of volatile and troubling debates about artificial intelligence, ethics and the meaning of personhood. … The two [protagonists] share confidences, fight, reconcile and grieve together, but however their emotions fluctuate, the writing, in Mark Schafer’s fine translation, remains cultured and probing. [This] book has excited me more than any that I have read this year, as much for its tenderness as for its insights.” – Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal
“Gopegui issues an intellectual challenge to Google, and to her readers. What, she asks, do we know that AI cannot – and is it too late to start valuing that knowledge more? . . . Exciting and bracing.”– Lily Meyer, NPR
“Belén Gopegui brandishes her pen as a sword as she charges straight at one of the tech giants. … It adds a literary dimension and intellectual depth to an escalating discussion previously mined by writers such as William Gibson (Neuromancer) and Jennifer Egan (The Candy House), both standout examples of fiction reflecting the relationship between technology and society.” –Lanie Tankard
“A thrillingly unclassifiable book of ideas about the inherent tension between being an individual while also being part of a community…. Gopegui’s novel is a study of empathy and human connection in a time of algorithms and tech giants, extending curiosity not only towards her very human characters, but also towards the corporate machinery that governs their lives, and the lives of her readers.” – Adrienne Celt
“Unique and fascinating, Stay This Day and Night with Me pushes beyond the political and philosophical debates of its characters to deliver a much-needed dose of humanity in the face of emerging corporate, unknowable, and inhuman intelligence.” – Tim Maughan