Replay

Replay is a fantasy novel by American writer Ken Grimwood, first published by Arbor House in 1987. It won the 1988 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel. The novel tells of a 43-year-old man who dies and wakes up back in 1963 in his 18-year-old body. He relives his life with all his memories of the previous 25 years intact. This happens repeatedly, with the man playing out his life differently in each cycle. The novel was a bestseller in Japan. Its time-loop concept has been referenced as a precursor of Harold Ramis's comedy-drama Groundhog Day (1993). Richard A. Lupoff explored a similar premise in his 1973 short story "12:01". Australian science fiction author Damien Broderick credits the novel with introducing the "Replay" trope wherein time travel is often depicted without any kind of manufactured machine or technology as its source. The novel has also attracted literary analysis outside the genre of science fiction, with author Samuel Berglund arguing it "presents a postmodern rejection of a universal meaning to life" through its use of repetition and "various other postmodern literary techniques."