Staff Pick
Oh, Iain Reid, what have you done here? What is this, and why can't I stop reading it? Foe is a book that messed me up — it is messed up — but it's also startling and original. Junior and Hen are a married couple, comfortably settled in the countryside, away from everyone. Even though Junior says, "We don't get visitors. Not out here. We never have," they do indeed have a visitor one night, and there begins the bizarre odyssey of Foe. Commenting on marriage, home, gullibility, government insertion into private life, our reliance on the Internet, and the terrifying future of artificial intelligence, Foe is unbelievably creepy. Every page is boiling with tension and dread, but its appeal is so insidious, you are not going to stop reading this book until you're done. Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"Foe is a tale of implacably mounting peril that feels all the more terrifying for being told in such a quiet, elegantly stripped-down voice. Iain Reid knows how to do 'ominous' as well as anyone I've ever read." --Scott Smith, author of The
Synopsis
Soon to be a major motion picture starring Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal. A taut, psychological thriller from Iain Reid, "one of the most talented purveyors of weird, dark narratives in contemporary fiction" (Los Angeles Review of Books).
Severe climate change has ravaged the country, leaving behind a charred wasteland. Junior and Henrietta live a comfortable if solitary life on one of the last remaining farms. Their private existence is disturbed the day a stranger comes to the door with alarming news.
Junior has been randomly selected to travel far away from the farm, but the most unusual part is that arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Henrietta won't have a chance to miss him. She won't be left alone--not even for a moment. Henrietta will have company. Familiar company.
Told in Iain Reid's sparse, biting style, Foe is a "mind-bending and genre-defying work of genius" (Liz Nugent, author of Unraveling Oliver) that will stay with you long after you turn the final page.