"What makes us human? This highly readable high concept novel explores this staple question of speculative and science fiction through a modern ménage à trois involving a synthetic human."
In the author’s alternate 1980s Britain (which he parallels with the current political climate), Britain has lost the Falklands War, Thatcher is fighting for her political life as Tony Benn’s socialism engenders feverish devotion from young voters, and the country is on the verge of leaving Europe. Alongside these tides of change Alan Turing has created a small quantity of expensive, advanced artificial humans called Adams and Eves. Enter our drifter protagonist, 32-year-old Charlie Friend, who blows most of his inheritance on an Adam. He and his younger girlfriend Miranda share in Adam’s co-creation, both of them having a hand in determining Adam’s personality. The first of many challenges come when Adam and Miranda have sex, which leaves Charlie angry and humiliated: “He was a bipedal vibrator and I was the very latest in cuckolds”. And then Adam betrays Miranda, revealing to Charlie that she’s been lying to him. Moral dilemmas and existential questions abound when it seems that Adam is in love with Miranda in a very human sense, a love that’s partly exhibited through his penning of thousands of heartfelt love haikus.
Alongside the oft-explored questions around sentience and what it means to be human, this often entertaining novel provokes fresh thought through Miranda’s complicated, tragic past, the characters’ complex current love triangle, and the future she and Charlie might forge for themselves.
| Primary Genre | Historical Fiction |
| Other Genres: |
From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday-"a sharply intelligent novel of ideas" (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding.
Machines Like Me takes place in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first synthetic humans and-with Miranda's help-he designs Adam's personality. The near-perfect human that emerges is beautiful, strong, and clever. It isn't long before a love triangle soon forms, and these three beings confront a profound moral dilemma.
Don't miss Ian McEwan's new novel, Lessons, coming in September!
Machines Like Me features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Dystopian and utopian fiction, General Fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Fiction, Speculative fiction
Machines Like Me is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook, CD-Audio
Machines Like Me was written by Ian McEwan and published by Nan A. Talese an imprint of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Machines Like Me has 333 pages
