This is a seriously creepy book. It takes place sometime in the near future, though we learn very little about it. The narrator gives little away, and often seems to understand even less than we do about what is going on.

The plot revolves around a couple who live in rural isolation who are told that the husband — Junior — has been selected to go off into outer space for a couple of years. To compensate his wife, Henrietta, OuterMore, the mysterious company behind the program will be giving her what is effectively a “biomechanical duplicate”, an android replacement for him — but one which looks and speaks and behaves exactly like Junior.

From the beginning, you get the sense that there is going to be a plot twist or two, and there are, and then you feel oh-so-clever because you saw that one coming, but then the one you didn’t see coming whacks you right on the head.

Iain Reid is a great storyteller and this a chilling, weird book. You’ll read it in one day, but you won’t forget it for a very long time.