**Finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022 ** From the Costa Award winner, a highly inventive and and humane novel about our relationship with technology and our addiction to innovation. This is the tale of a new technology, an alternative history that unfolds over many decades. It is a fable told through a constantly shifting cast of characters, all drawn into the world of a machine that slowly alters every life it touches. But in this unending quest for progress, what will happen to the things that make us human: the memories, the fears, the love, the mortality? As we push towards a brave new world, what do we stand to lose? 'Such a super novel' Wendy Erskine 'A clever book...that will have you thinking about the machines in your own life' Sunday Times