Bonding

The beach read with big ideas

'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

'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

Adrift in her early thirties, Mary sets out to change her life, one ill-advised decision at a time.

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.

Electrifying, urgent, and darkly funny, Mariel Franklin's Bonding is a uniquely modern story of sex and freedom in the messy tangle of our digital age.

'Audacious, hot, deeply uncomfortable and genuinely thrilling' - Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes