Allen & Unwin The Answers book Fiction English Paperback 304 pages

A dating dystopia for our modern age, from one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists.

WELCOME TO THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIMENTMary is out of options. Estranged from her family and beset by phantom pain, she signs up for 'The Girlfriend Experiment' - a mysterious project masterminded by a famous Hollywood actor who hires a collection of women to fulfil the different roles of a relationship. Mary is to play the Emotional Girlfriend, alongside a Maternal Girlfriend, a Mundane Girlfriend, an Angry Girlfriend and, of course, an Intimacy Team. Each woman has her debts and her difficulties, her past loves and her secrets. As Mary and the actor are drawn ever closer together, the nature of the experiment changes, and the Girlfriends find themselves exposed to new perils, foremost among them love.

Catherine Lacey is the author of Nobody Is Ever Missing, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Fiction Award. Her short fiction and essays have been published widely. She was the recipient of a Whiting Award in 2016, was named a Granta New Voice in 2014, was awarded a fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2012, and has taught in the Creative Writing Program at Columbia University. A collection of her short stories is forthcoming from Granta Books.