The next book to be featured this season on the Sara Cox Radio 2 Book Club is The Merge by Grace Walker—a striking debut which asks: what if two consciousnesses could be joined together into one person – two people in one head and body? And if so, who would you choose to ‘merge’ with?
The book was released on 6 November and Grace’s interview with Sara is on BBC Sounds from Tuesday 9 December.
Read an exclusive extract.
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The Merge
Once the process begins, there can be no going back, we will always be together…
Laurie is sixty-five and living with Alzheimer’s. Her daughter Amelia can’t bear to see her mother’s mind fade. Faced with the reality of losing her forever, Amelia signs them up to take part in the world’s first experimental merging process for Alzheimer’s patients, in which Laurie’s ailing mind will be transferred into Amelia’s healthy body and their consciousness will be blended as one.
Soon Amelia and Laurie join a group of other merge participants: teenage Lucas, who plans to merge with his terminally ill brother Noah; Ben, who will merge with his pregnant fiancée Annie; and Jay, whose merging partner is his unwilling addict daughter Lara.
As they prepare to move to The Village, a luxurious rehabilitation centre for those who have merged, they quickly begin to question whether everything is really as it seems.
About the author
Grace Walker is an English teacher living in Surrey with a background in video production. The Merge is her first novel.
A word from Grace
“When I found out The Merge had been chosen for the BBC Radio 2 Book Club, I felt a surreal mix of excitement, disbelief, and gratitude. The Radio 2 Book Club has always felt like one of those iconic milestones writers quietly dream about, and to know that The Merge will now be shared, discussed, and lived with by reading groups across the country means more to me than I can easily put into words. This is a novel that asks intimate questions about identity, connection, and what it means to share a life, or a mind, with another person, and the idea of those questions being explored collectively, in book clubs and libraries, feels like the most meaningful home it could have.”
“Libraries have always been vital spaces for stories, but also for people. They are places of discovery, refuge, curiosity, and community, and the work librarians do, connecting readers with books they didn’t yet know they needed, is extraordinary. To have The Merge chosen by library staff and reading experts, people whose first loyalty is always to readers and their communities, is a profound honour. I’m incredibly grateful to the librarians and reading groups who have welcomed The Merge onto their shelves, and I hope it sparks thoughtful, generous, and memorable conversations wherever it’s read. Thank you SO much for selecting The Merge – you’ve made this writer oh so happy!”
Get involved
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