Dark Matter

Blake Crouch seems particularly adept at writing books that people want to make into movies or TV series: this book has been picked up by Sony Pictures, his Wayward Pines trilogy became a #1 Fox TV series, and his Letty Dobesh books are the basis for the TNT series. He has written lots of other books as well. This newest effort is a mix of quantum physics-focused science fiction and a provocative exploration of what makes life meaningful.
Physicist Jason Dessen lives a less than extraordinary life, teaching physics at the college, husband to would-be artist Daniela and a 15 year old son, Charlie. On one ordinary Chicago evening, he heads out to the local pub to help a former colleague celebrate having won a prestigious science prize. But this Jason never makes it home that night. He is kidnapped, driven to an abandoned factory, and drugged. When he awakens, he is surrounded by people he does not know but who seem to know him and who are desperate to know what he remembers from an apparent months-long absence. Jason escapes and tries to figure out whether or not he is losing his mind. Meanwhile, back at the Dessen home, Jason--or someone who looks and sounds very much like him, we'll call him Jason#2--has come home 3 hours late and resumes the life that Jason #1 has just lost.
It turns out that, if Jason #1 had made different choices, he would have gone on to discover revolutionary possibilities for parallel universes and won the science prize. But he would have lost Daniela and never had Charlie. The man he would have been has now stolen his life. This is a story about the mind-bending aspects of "what if all the 'what-if's' actually existed?" but also about the essential questions of what makes us unique. If we are an accumulation of all the choices we make, how do we define that, hang on to that, recover that when it is lost? Here is an interview with the author on NPR. Worthwhile reviews from Kirkus, NYT, and The Guardian.