It’s Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles

It’s 1996, and in this alternate history novel about the Beatles, WFUV disc jockey Pete Fornatale walks in the tunnels under Fordham University, then travels downtown to Grand Central Terminal and finds the world of music that he inhabits is very different. As he struggles to understand how to get in and out of alternate realities, and make sure John Lennon is not killed in any of them, Fornatale will actually dine with John Lennon and David Bowie, consult with Leonard Cohen, attend a Beatles concert with Diana Ross in Central Park in 1996, and work with a variety of real life characters you may or may not have heard of. The short story this novel is based upon won the Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fiction in 2023, and was a Finalist for the Sidewise Award (short form) for Alternate History 2022.