The Merge

Walker debuts with a frightening glimpse into a near-future London ravaged by climate change, where the government, in an effort to conserve resources, has launched a new procedure called the Merge, in which the minds of two people are joined in one body known as a Combine. Those who refuse are hit with a heavy tax and made into social pariahs. Amelia Anderson, a 23-year-old videographer, stridently opposes the Merge, but when her painter mother, Laurie, is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they sign up to be the first Combine involving someone with dementia. Amelia secretly plans to abandon the Merge at the last minute, keeping her intentions even from Laurie, and she films the preparations for a planned documentary. Somehow, though, their merging is completed, and they wake up at a heavily controlled treatment center where the surgeon greets them as Laura-Amelia. From here, the novel is narrated in the first-person plural, as Laura-Amelia tries to figure out what happened. It’s an impressive swerve, and Walker effectively blends climate dystopia and body horror, especially in the novel’s chilling final twist. Readers of The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins will enjoy this. Agent: Liv Maidment, Madeleine Milburn Literary. (Nov.)