Description

‘A tour de force’ Joseph O’Connor

‘A work of genius’ Donal Ryan

Nevada; the near future; a family in crisis

Biologist and single mother Naomi is worried about the impact her ground-breaking research might have on the world. And of the impact the world might have on her painfully awkward, home-schooled, ever-growing teenage son, Colt.

Colt is so brilliant he can code virtual realities our world hasn’t even thought of yet; and so socially inept that he struggles to order takeaway pizza.

When Colt secretly sends his mother’s breakthrough research paper to a biotech conference in New York, and the conference is closed down, Naomi’s worst fears come true. Colt’s father crashes back into their lives, backed by the secretive security organisation he heads. The US government wants Naomi’s research . . . and Colt.

Colt will soon have to leave the comfort of his virtual reality world, and face the challenge of discovering who he really is.

And Naomi will have to decide how far she will go to protect her child. Would she kill a man? Would she destroy the world?

From one of the most original voices in Irish writing, Connect is a thrillingly smart novel of ideas that explores what connection – both human and otherwise – might be in a digital age. It is a story of mothers and sons, but also about you, your phone, and the future.

Publisher Review

A mind-warping futuristic thriller wrapped in a smorgasbord of ideas . . . inventive and entertaining . . . Connect might just be the perfect combination of beach read and literary torchpaper. * Sunday Business Post (Ireland) * Connect has all the hallmarks of such futuristic classics as War Of The Worlds and Brave New World, but it is also a strong stand alone novel full of excitement, twists, and turns, and stands shoulder to shoulder with any thriller being published today. * Galway Advertiser * This is a novel of enormous danger and risk . . It is in the lightness of the writing, the compelling force of the narrative that the author achieves real brilliance. Gough has undoubtedly arrived, as a master storyteller. -- Michael Harding A wonderful novel, a tour de force. -- Joseph O'Connor Connect really is a work of genius. It confronts and explores the nature of humanness and existence in a thrilling, immersive, addictive way, and marks Julian out as a prophet among writers. -- Donal Ryan, author of The Spinning Heart, winner of the Guardian First Book Award, longlisted for the Man Booker prize Read Connect by the absurdly brilliant Julian Gough, a mind-expanding technothriller with a hotly beating human heart. -- Emma Donoghue An exciting literary thriller with plenty of interesting ideas. * Mail on Sunday * This stimulating tale of a coder and his mum is a hyper-digital thriller . . . a story of family dysfunction plugged into larger questions about reality, evolution and the west's self-definition as "the good guys". * Observer * I found Connect propulsively paced and ingeniously twisting. Gough has written a hyperactive, adrenaline-junkie dystopian thriller that deserves to be made into a belter of a film franchise. * The Times * Connect is so plugged into the technological zeitgeist . . . This is the world we know, several operating systems down the line . . . Instantly convincing . . . It will subtly change the way you see the world. * Sunday Times * A dazzling technothriller . . . propulsive and engrossing * Guardian *