Hum

by Helen Phillips

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Pub Date 7 Nov 2024 | Archive Date 10 Nov 2024

Atlantic Books

Literary Fiction

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Description

‘One of our most gifted and interesting writers’ Emily St John Mandel

In a hot and gritty city populated by super-intelligent robots called 'Hums', May seeks some reprieve from recent hardships and from her family's addiction to their devices. She splurges on a weekend away at the Botanical Garden - a rare, green refuge in the heart of the city, where forests, streams and animals flourish. But when it becomes clear that the Garden is not the idyll she hoped it would be, and her children come under threat, May is forced to put her trust in a Hum of uncertain motives in order to restore the life of her family.

Gripping and unflinching, Hum is about our most cherished human relationships in a world compromised by climate change and dizzying technological revolution, a world with both dystopian and utopian possibilities.

Put your trust in the unnatural.

‘One of our most gifted and interesting writers’ Emily St John Mandel

In a hot and gritty city populated by super-intelligent robots called 'Hums', May seeks some reprieve from recent hardships and...

Advance Praise

'An indelible family portrait and a narrative tour de force, Hum generates almost unbearable tension and unease from start to end. Stunning, strangely beautiful, and written from a place of deep compassion but also with a clear and analytical eye. Helen Phillips, in typical bravura fashion, has found a way to make visible uncomfortable truths about our present by interrogating the near-future. I loved it' Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times-bestselling author of Hummingbird Salamander

'What's more intoxicating than a Helen Phillips novel? Her books have blown open the doors of what's possible with the art of storytelling - and her latest, Hum, is her best work yet: one that captures, with fire and grace, our future and what it means to love, to persist, and to be human. This is a hold-your-breath book. Buckle up and get ready to deeply feel the joy - the thrill, the magic - of reading' Paul Yoon, author of The Hive and the Honey

'A transcendent portrayal of artificial intelligence, love, the fate of families, and the emergence of synthetic beings beyond human imagination' Clifford A. Pickover, author of Artificial Intelligence: An Illustrated History

'Hum is something special. Helen Phillips is something really special. This novel is gripping and a true page-turner that made me think about our current world in completely new ways. Ultimately and most importantly, I closed the last page with a profound, deep love for the simple, beautiful and very human lives we lead' Ramona Ausubel, author of The Last Animal

'A prescient, unnerving and excellent novel of a future that seems frighteningly possible. It's the story, in part, of a mother just trying to make her family happy and how the world punishes her for it. Helen Phillips writes with sharp insight and sly humor, making her critique of our current moment feel timely and timeless' Victor LaValle, author of Lone Women

'There's a lot going on in this novel, but trust Helen Phillips to navigate it effortlessly.... It's Anxiety Central, but in a good way' Literary Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2024