"Dispersion" by Greg Egan

Good, solid, high-concept science fiction novella. This is set in a place where different villages are all out of sync with each other; they can only perceive and interact with each other when their cycles align. Think China Miéville’s The City and the City, or the one episode of ST:TNG where a transporter accident (never can trust that damn thing, almost as bad as the holodeck) left LaForge and Ro in a similar situation. Eat food from another village, your body will absorb it, and then you’ll be in for some significant discomfort when the cycle passes and those helpful proteins you absorbed just kind of fade away. The different villages have been cheerfully sort-of-co-existing for a long time, but a new disease has appeared that some people are blaming on exposure to the other villages. The story follows a researcher working in collaboration with scientists from other village (no mean feat) to try to trace the disease and find a cure. The ending is ambiguous, which some hate but I find I adore.