Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize Discoveries 2024
Robin is unreliable, unstable and utterly devoted to his oldest friend Henry. So when Henry’s beloved mother – the lauded novelist Marian Finch – dies unexpectedly, Robin is there to pick up the pieces. Henry comes into possession of a venerable antiquarian bookshop and there – for a time – they build a life, with their found family of sorts.
But grief can send us down unexpected paths. For Henry, it leads him to the theory of multiple universes and to Yolanda, a brilliant scientist who can help him understand it.
Robin and Yolanda have three things in common: they are in love with the same man, they despise each other, and they are oblivious to the fact that Henry is spiralling into a dangerous obsession that will irrevocably change them all.
Imaginary Forces is a luminous portrait of love in its many forms – yearning, obsession, addiction – and just how messy and destructive it can be.
