**Finalist for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2022 ** From the Costa Award winner a
highly inventive and and humane novel about our relationship with technology and our addiction
to innovation. 'Are they paying you extra for this? You'd better be getting something. For the
inconvenience I mean. Here for the whole weekend is what they said. What if we'd had guests?
They never asked. And in any case what are the dangers? Being tested like lab rats we are. Did
they even try to provide any assurance it was all perfectly-' This is the prototype. The first
step to a new future. A future that will be easy and abundant. A future in which distance is no
longer a barrier to human contact. And all it takes is a simple transport unit in every home
every street every town. Quick. Clean. Easy. A future driven by data not emotion. And so
begins the journey of a new technology that will soon change the world and everyone in it - the
sceptics and the converts the innocents and the evangelists. A scientific wonder that quickly
becomes an everyday aspect of life. But what of our inherent messiness? In a world preoccupied
with progress what will happen to the things that make us human: the memories the fears the
love the blood the contradictions the mortality? As we push for a sense of perfection what
do we stand to lose? Questioning innovative and shot through with a rich humanity Appliance
is much more than a novel. It examines our faith in technology our hunger for new things and
the rapid changes affecting all our lives. It challenges us to stop and reflect on the future
we want the systems we trust and what really matters to us.
