For readers of Cleopatra and Frankenstein and Exciting Times, an addictive, dark and sexy debut novel about falling in love as society falls 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

'This bold and highly impressive debut novel has its thumb right over the sore spots of modern life' - Guardian

Mary is single, jobless, and on her way to Ibiza.

There, at a party, she meets Tom, a brilliant chemist on the verge of launching a new drug that claims to cure the anxieties of modern life.

Back in London after a heady trip, Mary begins going out with Tom and working for her sort-of-ex Lara, who has created innovative dating app designed to revolutionize the industry. As tech and pharma collide, she is forced to question what love and success mean in a world that is hurtling out of control.

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

'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" - The Observer

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

"Fast, harsh, smart and fun" - Guardian

"Franklin’s agile, thought-provoking tale throbs with ideas, fears and cautions." - Financial Times