First, she books a spontaneous flight to Ibiza where she meets Tom, a brilliant young chemist working on an experimental drug called Eudaxa that claims to cure the anxieties of modern life. As their connection deepens, Mary thinks she might finally be falling in love.

Then Mary lands a job at Openr, an innovative dating app with no limits. Its founder, Mary’s ex girlfriend Lara, will do everything it takes to make it a global phenomenon.

When Mary introduces Lara and Tom, love and pharma collide with devastating consequences. As whispers about Eudaxa’s side effects begin to grow, Mary is forced to ask whether love is even possible in a society that is falling apart.

I absolutely loved it. Anyone interested in the relationship between tech, our bodies and our minds should bump it to the top of their queue immediately. ―  Zadie Smith, author of The Fraud

Audacious, hot, deeply uncomfortable and genuinely thrilling. ―  Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes

So obviously impressive . . . With its dissident intelligence and its comprehensive vision of a devastated social sphere, Mariel Franklin’s Bonding is the work of an author whose importance already feels assured. ― Observer

This smart, disturbing debut reads like a 19th-century novel of manners for the digital age . . . Franklin has written one of the most stimulating novels I have read. ― The Times

Part love story, part love-mare, Bonding asks big, bold questions about the future of human relations and relationships. ― Sarah May, author of Becky

Franklin arranges her vision of the contemporary moment in a way that makes the reader see our predicament anew. She is a seer and this novel of ideas is funny, sexy and surprising. ― Luke Brown, author of Theft

Franklin is a fearless writer. In Bonding, she has written a novel that is somehow both timely and timeless. ― Keiran Goddard, author of I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning