The Book of Guilt

In this devastating dystopian novel from Chidgey (Pet), WWII ended in a stalemate and by 1979 the horrifying results of German death camp experiments have led to a profound ethical dilemma in England. A set of 13-year-old triplets, unwitting products of genetic tinkering, are the only children left at an orphanage in Hampshire, looked after by three “mothers” who keep the outside world at bay. The brothers are sickly but relatively happy, until girls with similar origins and ailments arrive for an official visit and one of them makes the disturbing suggestion that the medicine they’re being given makes them ill, not better. Among the alternating narrators are Vincent, one of the triplets; a girl named Nancy, who lives with strange, overprotective “parents” in a house she’s never allowed to leave; and the Minister of Loneliness, who’s been tasked with phasing out the government’s involvement in a scandalous human engineering scheme. As the government begins dismantling the program, both Vincent and the Minister suspect that his life and the lives of other children may be imperiled. Chidgey’s clear-eyed narrative about the abuses of exploitive state-sponsored experiments builds to a devastating denouement. It adds up to an intriguing morality tale. Agent: Caroline Dawnay, UTA. (Sept.)