| Half Life | |
| Author: | Shelley Jackson |
| Cover Artist: | Jacket design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel, alternate history |
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Release Date: | July 25, 2006 |
| Media Type: | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages: | 440 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| Isbn: | 978-0-06-088235-8 |
| Isbn Note: | (first edition, hardcover) |
| Dewey: | 813/.54 22 |
| Congress: | PS3560.A2448 H35 2006 |
| Oclc: | 63165002 |
Half Life is the 2006 debut novel of American writer and artist Shelley Jackson. The novel presupposes an alternate history in which the atomic bomb resulted in a genetic preponderance of conjoined twins, who eventually become a minority subculture.
The book tells the story of a disenchanted conjoined twin named Nora Olney who plots to have her twin murdered.
Half Life received mixed-to-positive reviews; Newsweek called it "brilliant and funny,"[1] and The New York Times, while praising Jackson's ambition as "truly glorious," added that "All this razzle-dazzle, all the allusions, [and] the narrative loop-de-loops [get] a bit busy."[2] It won the 2006 James Tiptree, Jr. Award for science fiction and fantasy.