Belén Gopegui

An intergenerational novel that dissects human relationships and criticizes social inequality and technological dehumanization. 

Two generations, two lives that were not called to meet, will intimidate Google

This novel is the story of Mateo and Olga, as well as a job application with Google as the recipient. Mateo is twenty-two, interested in robots, and obsessed with discovering whether or not merit could be used to measure the world of human relationships. Olga is a mathematician and entrepreneur in the area of forecasting and decision making using statistical models. Like the killer and the victim in detective novels, the two meet in a library, and the magical objects that bring them together are books about robotics. This could be a love story in the sense that encounters, dialog, and the desire to hear the other person’s voice create a common narrative. And because, as in love stories, their coming together is also a clash between two different ways of being and understanding the world.

Mateo has his entire life ahead of him, and refuses to accept that that life cannot be written from a position of freedom. Olga, who is far past her halfway point, is not afraid to relegate herself to the bottom of a drawer. They are united by the same will to understand and feel what happens when a machine realises it’s a machine, when a robot realises it’s a robot.

The story of an encounter, two bodies, two intelligences. A young Dante and a Beatrice who is almost old travel through a space that is not Heaven, but not Hell either.

"Ms. Gopegui’s novel brilliantly steps into the middle of volatile and troubling debates about artificial intelligence, ethics and the meaning of personhood….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 leavens the high-mindedness with a cool sense of irony, and shines with her succinct insights on the similarities between humans and AI...Readers will be intrigued."Publishers Weekly

“A beautifully written, endlessly provocative meditation on humanity’s relationship to technology, monopoly, memory, and fate.” Dave Eggers

"Belén Gopegui brandishes her pen as a sword as she charges straight at one of the tech giants. . . . The release of this English translation is timed perfectly. 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, The Woven Tale Press

“In the author’s hands, what first unfolds before our eyes like a social novel, a book full of keys to understanding this complicated present of ours, becomes pages of exhilarating lyrical intensity, as well as an agonizing thriler.” Culturamas

"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, author of Infinite Detail

"...you cannot help but being fascinated by the issues that come up in this book and the discussions between Olga and Mateo. You might argue that this could have been simply written down in essay form but that is a bit like saying that Tolstoy could just have written a historical account of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia." The Modern Novel 

“Belén Gopegui makes consummate use of the novel as an instrument of political inquiry, reflection and interpelation, in the broadest sense.” Ignacio Echevarría

"Lo que nos propone Belén Gopegui es una vuelta de tuerca: no ya el individuo que lucha contra el robot sino el robot que lucha contra la deshumanización de los humanos. Esta paradoja tiene más alcance del que parece porque la novela insinúa asimismo la posibilidad de que Olga y Mateo no sean tan humanos como se creen." Iñaki Ezkerra, El Correo Español 

"Two people who love robots meet in a library. A philosophical dialogue ensues. The writing is delicate, strange, and strangely riveting: Gopegui slides between registers and scales with uncommon grace. This is a book about two human beings and also what it means to be a human being in the algorithmic age. This is a book about Google, capitalism, and the ordinary unhappiness of being alive."–Ben Tarnoff, author of Internet for the People: The Fight for Our Digital Future

"With the Digital Age as the backdrop, Gopegui creates a novel that is as analog as they come: a conversation between two people, their philosophical debates and tender connection. As a result, she crafts a potent interrogation of the status of our modern life." Bennard Fajardo, Politics and Prose Bookstore, Washington, D.C.

"A thrillingly unclassifiable book of ideas about the inherent tension between being an individual while also being part of a community–and whether one's individual or communal identity is ever truly primary. 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, author of End of the World House

'Como vivir sabiendo que Google sabe quien eres, qué harás y por qué quieres hacerlo' Reseña por Eduald Espluga, Play Ground Magazine, 6 sept 2017

'El poder de la novela es pequeño pero incontrolable', Reseña, El País, 20 sept 2017

'El poder de Google no es democrático', Reseña, Público, 20 sept 2017

'Cinco notas sobre Quédate este día y esta noche conmigo', por Gonzalo Torné, CXT, 17/10/2017