**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.**
'Are they paying you extra for this? You'd better be getting something.
For the inconvenience, I mean. Here for the whole weekend is what they
said. What if we'd had guests? They never asked. And in any case what
are the dangers? Being tested like lab rats, we are. Did they even try
to provide any assurance it was all perfectly-'
This is the prototype. The first step to a new future.
A future that will be easy and abundant. A future in which distance is
no longer a barrier to human contact. And all it takes is a simple
transport unit, in every home, every street, every town. Quick. Clean.
Easy. A future driven by data, not emotion.
And so begins the journey of a new technology that will soon change the
world and everyone in it - the sceptics and the converts, the innocents
and the evangelists. A scientific wonder that quickly becomes an
everyday aspect of life.
But what of our inherent messiness? In a world preoccupied with
progress, what will happen to the things that make us human: the
memories, the fears, the love, the blood, the contradictions, the
mortality? As we push for a sense of perfection, what do we stand to
lose?
Questioning, innovative and shot through with a rich humanity,
Appliance is much more than a novel. It examines our faith in
technology, our hunger for new things and the rapid changes affecting
all our lives. It challenges us to stop and reflect on the future we
want, the systems we trust, and what really matters to us.
