Simon Stephenson

*SET TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY EDGAR WRIGHT (SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD)* For fans of Fredrik Backman and Gail Honeyman, a delightfully entertaining, deceptively poignant debut novel about a humanlike bot named Jared, whose emotional awakening leads him on an unforgettable quest for connection, belonging and possibly even true love Jared works as a dentist in small-town Michigan. His life is totally normal, except for one thing. He is a bot engineered with human DNA to look and act like a real person. One day at a screening of a classic movie, Jared feels a strange sensation around his eyes. Everyone knows that bots can't feel emotions, but as the theater lights come on, Jared is almost certain he's crying. Confused, he decides to watch more old movies to figure out what's happening. The process leads to an emotional awakening that upends his existence. Jared, it turns out, can feel. Overcome with a full range of emotions, and facing an imminent reset, Jared heads west, determined to forge real connections. He yearns to find his mother, the programmer who created him. He dreams of writing a screenplay that will change the world. Along the way, he might even fall in love. But a bot with feelings is a dangerous proposition, and Jared's new life could come to an end before it truly begins. Delectably entertaining and deceptively moving, Set My Heart to Five is a profound exploration of what makes us human and a love letter to outsiders everywhere.

Set My Heart to Five

‘In Stephenson, Vonnegut may have his first true protégé’ Washington Post ‘[A] thriller from [an] ex-doctor about a spate of mysterious deaths in a beleaguered hospital. Insightful on addiction and doctors' lives, it reads almost like a comic medical memoir – with murder thrown in ’The Bookseller

Sometimes People Die

LET NOT THE WAVES OF THE SEA is Simon Stephenson's account of his journey following the loss of his brother in the Indian Ocean tsunami. If it is a story of grief, it is also a story of hope and of the unexpected places where healing can be found. Simon's journey takes him from Edinburgh in the immediate aftermath of the disaster, to Downing Street in London, to Thailand and the island where his brother died, to the scene of an ancient tsunami on the north-west coast of the United States, and to the town where he and his brother's favourite childhood film was made. Along the way there is heartbreak, dengue fever, Greek mythology, and hard physical labour in the tropical heat, but there is also memory, redemption and humour as well.

Simon Stephenson

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