Authors are collaborating with AI—and each other

Imagine living in a rundown apartment building on the Lower East Side in Manhattan. When covid-19 hits in 2020, you do not have the money to escape to a second home in the Hamptons or the Hudson Valley. Instead, in the evening you make your way up to the rooftop of your building, where, to your surprise, other tenants have come, too. You do not know most of them, but after some awkwardness, everyone starts meeting nightly, drinks in hand, to share stories about family, music, September 11th, love and, equally—inevitably—death.

This is the premise of “Fourteen Days”, a “collaborative novel” edited by Margaret Atwood (of “The Handmaid’s Tale” fame) and Douglas Preston (author of “The Lost City of the Monkey God”). In addition to Ms Atwood and Mr Preston, 34 notable authors of varied genres and backgrounds contributed to the book, including James Shapiro, a playwright, and the novelists Emma Donoghue, Dave Eggers and John Grisham. Reading “Fourteen Days” is like sitting by a campfire, with characters taking turns telling tales about their lives. (This conceit is helpful, given the number of collaborators. The book’s plot is simple, so each character’s story can stand on its own.)