This novel by Ian McEwan is set in London in the early 1980s. Britain is in a state of political upheaval having just lost the Falklands War under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher and she is being forced from office. Yes, you heard me right. History is turned on its head in this novel. In this alternative recent past history scientist Alan Turing was not driven to suicide but has gone on to develop artificial intelligence and Thatcher and Benn are sparring for leadership. Charlie Friend, a 32 year old underachieving day trader, buys a newly developed robot named Adam with "plausible intelligence and looks, believable motion and shifts of expression." He uses an inheritance to do so and enlists Miranda, his attractive 20-something neighbour, to "co-parent" Adam. Do things spiral out of control? You bet they do. To further complicate the plot Mark, an abandoned and abused child, is added to the mix. Adam has sex (with Miranda), writes haiku, makes money online for Charlie and seems very human except for a lack of comprehension of the flexibility of human emotion.
I nearly gave up on this book about a third of the way in but Mr.Nag encouraged me to continue, assuring me that it would get better - and it did. A plot developed and I whizzed through it. The book raised all kinds of moral dilemmas and, in the end, it was thought provoking.
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