Book Details

"[Machines Like Me] traverses the muddled morality of Artificial Intelligence... This is new and exciting ground for McEwan, one of Britain's most consistently brilliant writers." (Olivia Ovenden Harper's Bazaar, *The Books We Can't Wait To Read In 2019*)

"McEwan returns with another ambitious, high-concept work... [exploring] some very timely moral dilemmas." (Economia, The pick of 2019 reads)

"In [Machines Like Me], McEwan has taken his creativity into a subversive alternative 1980s London? the young couple at the centre of McEwan?s story find out the danger in inventing things beyond our control." (Rebecca Thomas BBC News)

Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding.

Machines Like Me occurs 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 batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda?s assistance, he co-designs Adam?s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever ? a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan?s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.