Allen & Unwin Infinite Ground book Fiction English Paperback 272 pages

A brilliant panic attack of a debut novel, Infinite Ground is an investigation into the swarming, sinister beauty of our own microbiology, and a celebration of the all-too-brief splendour of being alive and the enduring splendour of the natural world.

A luminous debut novel of modern alienation, of the sinister beauty of the human body and of the enduring splendour of the natural world.During a sweltering South American summer, a family convenes for dinner at a restaurant. Midway through the meal, Carlos disappears. An experienced, semi-retired inspector takes the case, but what should be a routine investigation becomes something strange, intangible, even sinister. The corporation for which Carlos worked seems to serve no purpose; the staff talk of their missing colleague's alarming, shifting physical symptoms; a forensic scientist uncovers evidence of curious abnormalities in the thriving microorganisms that shared Carlos's body. As the inspector relives and retraces the missing man's footsteps, the trail leads him away from the city sprawl and deep into the country's rainforest interior, where he encounters both horror and wonder.

Martin MacInnes was born in Inverness in 1983. He has an MA from the University of York, has read at international science and literature festivals, and is the winner of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award and the 2014 Manchester Fiction Prize. He lives in Edinburgh.