Sarah Hall has twice been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. I would expect this searingly intense novel to make the 2022 shortlist. With extraordinarily sensuous prose, Sarah Hall chronicles the unfolding relationship between two lovers during a pandemic, which is sweeping through Britain with devastating effect. It's by turns erotic, disturbing, beautiful, and heartachingly sad. It's full on, strange, and a triumph of economic storytelling and finely honed prose. Stunning and shocking.