Machines Like Me and People Like You

Author(s): Ian McEwan

Fiction | Chloe Recommends | Suzy Recommends

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. hese 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.  

Riverbend Review


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 confounding 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 tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.


Why We Chose this Book


We confess that 90% of staff here love Ian McEwan’s books and writing. We would probably enjoy reading his shopping lists. However there is nothing as banal as a shopping list in this story. The characters leap from the page - the rather hapless Charlie, the enigmatic Miranda and of course Adam - a haiku writing robot.


We know many customers love McEwan too. For those of you who are McEwan fence sitters and don’t like it when he writes an anti-hero as the central character, or feel that he gets a bit showy offy with his rapid fire prose - we can reassure you that Machines Like Me is actually McEwan at his very best. Entertaining, thought provoking, a writing style that is masterful, restrained and elegant. We can’t recommend this novel enough.


Product Information

 


 

 

 

 

 

General Fields

  • : 9781787331679
  • : Penguin Random House
  • : Penguin Books Ltd
  • : 0.422
  • : October 2019
  • : 2.6 Centimeters X 15.6 Centimeters X 23.5 Centimeters
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Ian McEwan
  • : Paperback
  • : proof
  • : English
  • : 823/.914
  • : very good
  • : 304