In a world on the brink, time is the ultimate weapon. 

2025 Hoffer Award Grand Prize Short List

Honorable Mention in General Fiction

In the not-too-distant future, Earth’s last survivors huddle inside a biodome as rising seas and relentless swarms of microdrones ravage the planet. Isabel and Diego are the last of their kind, trapped in a decaying world where hope is as scarce as food.

As the walls begin to crack and the hope of salvation fades, Isabel makes a startling discovery: the time-bending technology buried beneath their feet.

With humanity teetering on the edge, she gives up everything in an attempt to alter the dystopian present—and see her missing lover once more.

As time runs out, she’s whisked into a coffin-like machine set to plunge deep into her past. (A neural net insists she is humankind’s best hope. No one knows why.) They neglect to mention the time machine has been activated once before—with deadly results.

But the power to change history comes at a steep cost. Forced to confront their own regrets and the weight of humanity’s failures, Isabel and Diego must choose between altering the past and surviving the present.