This was the only one of Philip K. Dick's mainstream novels, now recognized as among his finest, to be published during his lifetime 'Graceful, wry, vulnerable, pessimistic and wise' The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction 'It is becoming increasingly clear that Dick is one of the most compelling chroniclers of life and love in 1950s California that we have' Publishers Weekly Philip K. Dick has been introduced to a huge market through the movies Blade Runner, Minority Report and A Scanner Darkly 'Dick quietly produced serious fiction in a popular form and there can be no greater praise' Michael Moorcock 'One of the most original practioners writing any kind of fiction, Dick made most of the European avant-garde seem like navel-gazers in a cul-de-sac' Sunday Times

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was born in Chicago but lived in California for most of his life. He went to college at Berkeley for a year, ran a record store and had his own classical-music show on a local radio station. He published his first short story, 'Beyond Lies the Wub' in 1952. Among his many fine novels are The Man in the High Castle, Time Out of Joint, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said.