Author: Walker, Grace

Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)

Published on 6 November 2025 by Oneworld Publications in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 352 pages
215 x 137 x 32 | 360g

‘Grace Walker creates an uncanny world so rich and all-encompassing that it’s hard to believe it’s not real … it’s clear that Walker poured her all into this future classic of the genre.’ Jodie Matthews, author ofMeet Me at the SurfaceOnce the process begins, there can be no going back, we will always be togetherLaurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer’s. Her daughter Amelia can’t bear to see her mother’s mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world’s first experimental merging process for Alzheimer’s patients, in which Laurie’s ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia’s healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.

Soon Amelia and Laurie join a group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiance Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his unwilling addict daughter Lara.

As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation centre for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.