A Visit to the Husband Archive

The Time Traveler's Passport

By: Kaliane Bradley

Narrated by: Mirai

A woman discovers her hidden potential in this dystopian short story about memory, identity, and imagination from Kaliane Bradley, the New York Times bestselling author of The Ministry of Time.

Nobody likes being on agricultural rotation, and with this heat wave, it’s almost more than Ester can take. She’s itching for something she can’t put words to—something she has no memory of wanting. But then, she can’t remember much beyond the past couple of years. She’s sent to the husband archive for a cure, but the man she checks out comes with baggage: stacks and stacks of paper he calls “books.” What they teach each other may prove hard to forget.

Kaliane Bradley’s A Visit to the Husband Archive is part of The Time Traveler’s Passport, an unforgettable collection of stories about memory, identity, and choice curated by New York Times bestselling anthologist John Joseph Adams. Watch time fly as you read or listen to each short story in a single sitting.

©2025 by Kaliane Bradley. (P)2025 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Dystopian alien time traveling short - my favorite

Of the six novellas in the collection, this was my favorite for plot, originality, and entertainment.

Intriguing premise

Females who all lose their personal time experience and become amoral animalistic drones, and a small percentage of men who don't, retaining their personal and cultural memories while being signed out from the archives as "husbands." Well written, well read, enjoyable short listen

Ester & John

Ester, a drone contract killer on agricultural rotation, checks out John, a former literature professor, from a husband archive location. Generally an optimistic person, Ester can remember back to only about five years prior. It's a weird reality, filled with giant oozing colonizer aliens (aka: "gods," "Strangers") and no electricity.