Set in 1980s London, the story revolves around Charlie: young and reckless, and in love with his upstairs neighbour, the enchanting Miranda whose hidden, murky past hangs between them. He has spent his inheritance on the acquisition of one of twenty-four highly developed robotic humans--named Adam or Eve--developed by Alan Turing after his success on the Enigma codebreaking machine, central to the Allies WWII victory. As London is consumed by the huge protests over England and Argentina's Falklands War and Margaret Thatcher's jingoistic ambitions, Charlie courts Miranda, and his Adam finds himself central to their affair.

Great novelist that he is, McEwan pulls us into the question of what it means to love, what it means to be human in our fast-changing times, and how precarious a construct is the world we live in and think we know.

Knopf Canada, 2019.
ISBN: 9780735278196. 352 pp.
Hardcover. Near fine in a near fine jacket.