I write things. Also, I’m actually smiling in that picture. That’s my smile. Shut up.
When We Were Real
“This is a marvel.”—Kirkus 
(starred review)
“…a tour de force”—Locus
“…a heady and entertaining treat”—Publishers Weekly
“…a philosophical feast”—BookPage
“…hilarious and heartfelt”—Library Journal
“…an absolute riot”—Reactor Mag
“[A] five-star adventure by an author at the peak of his craft.” —Booklist
out as of April 1, 2025 from Saga Press/ Simon & Schuster
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Seven years after the world was notified we’ve been living in a simulation, two old friends decide after a terminal cancer diagnosis to take one last road trip, a tour of North America’s Impossibles—the glitches, anomalies, and miracles in the landscape that appeared on Announcement Day. Their fellow passengers on the bus include a nun hunting for an absent God, a pregnant influencer determined to make her child too famous to be deleted, horny octogenarians, an indignant skeptic… and a professor on the run from sociopaths who take The Matrix as scripture. It’s The Canterbury Tales, but with 21st-century pilgrims trying to figure out what really matters in an artificial world.
“…an epic adventure and an examination of how humans (or their simulacra) interact when everybody is at their worst. It’s a testament to Gregory’s skill at character development that the people in this novel, and not the bizarre phenomena they’re observing, are the most fascinating part. This is a marvel.”
—Kirkus (starred review)