Love and Other Thought Experiments: Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020

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It becomes a book that explores human and non-human consciousness, parallel worlds, artificial intelligence, religious faith. In the first story you have no idea why there should be this computer speak there, and so I ignored it, probably didn’t even read it, skipping on to the next line.

In fact, the novel asks us to consider how far can we extend our empathy if humanity is to survive and is on the whole rather positive on our loving capacity to achieve this. I'll begin by saying that it's just been announced Love and Other Thought Experiments has made the Booker longlist, and I definitely see why.Ward's ingenious fiction debut stands in a tradition of philosophical fiction: Voltaire's Candide, Sartre's Nausea . What I can say is that I see why this book might not work for some people, and at times even I was so perplexed that I couldn't pin down my own feelings. I think this is beautifully written, and the examination of the effect of tragic death, and parenthood in its wake, is among the most memorable writing I have encountered. It takes 60+ pages to figure out, but you can trust all the threads will converge around Rachel and her son, Arthur, who becomes an astronaut.

The central conceit and structure of the novel is set up from the opening dialogue – between a couple: Rachel and Eliza(beth) where the two discuss thought experiments and Rachel demands to be in one. The book was written as an extension of a post graduate student project (at Goldsmiths College, London), and I think it reflects that, with its academic and highly formalised creative writing construct.The prose is sharp and confident, in a way that you very soon get a picture of the characters ( She had become the sort of person she approved of but she wasn’t sure she had chosen anything she actually wanted).