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English
Picador
16 September 2025
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I absolutely loved it. Anyone interested in the relationship between tech, our bodies and our minds should bump it to the top of their queue immediately' - Zadie Smith, author of The Fraud

'This bold and highly impressive debut novel has its thumb right over the sore spots of modern life' - Guardian

Mary is single, jobless, and on her way to Ibiza.

There, at a party, she meets Tom, a brilliant chemist on the verge of launching a new drug that claims to cure the anxieties of modern life.

Back in London after a heady trip, Mary begins going out with Tom and working for her sort-of-ex Lara, who has created innovative dating app designed to revolutionize the industry. As tech and pharma collide, she is forced to question what love and success mean in a world that is hurtling out of control.

Electrifying, urgent, and darkly funny, Mariel Franklin's debut Bonding is a uniquely modern story of sex, tech and freedom in the messy tangle of our digital age.

'Audacious, hot, deeply uncomfortable and genuinely thrilling' - Saba Sams, author of Send Nudes
By:  
Imprint:   Picador
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 197mm,  Width: 131mm,  Spine: 22mm
Weight:   242g
ISBN:   9781035016624
ISBN 10:   1035016621
Pages:   352
Publication Date:  
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Mariel Franklin lives and works in London. She has a MA in English from Edinburgh University and later went on to study Fine Art at Goldsmiths. After graduating, she spent several years working in data administrating in the tech industry. Bonding is her first novel.

Reviews for Bonding

I absolutely loved it. Anyone interested in the relationship between tech, our bodies and our minds should bump it to the top of their queue immediately -- Zadie Smith, author of <i>The Fraud</i> As relishable as it is terrifying, Bonding is an audacious, hot, deeply uncomfortable and genuinely thrilling deep-dive into the dystopian future in which we now live -- Saba Sams, author of <i>Send Nudes</i> So obviously impressive . . . With its dissident intelligence and its comprehensive vision of a devastated social sphere, Mariel Franklin’s Bonding is the work of an author whose importance already feels assured * Observer * This smart, disturbing debut reads like a 19th-century novel of manners for the digital age . . . Franklin has written one of the most stimulating novels I have read * The Times * Somewhere between Big Pharma-topia and dating app start-ups is Bonding’s biggest surprise – and it’s heart-shaped. Part love story, part love-mare, Bonding asks big, bold questions about the future of human relations and relationships --  Sarah May, author of <i>Becky</i> Franklin’s agile, thought-provoking tale throbs with ideas, fears and cautions. * Financial Times * Franklin arranges her vision of the contemporary moment in a way that makes the reader see our predicament anew. She is a seer and this novel of ideas is funny, sexy and surprising. -- Luke Brown, author <i>Theft</i> Franklin is a fearless writer. In Bonding, she has written a novel that is somehow both timely and timeless. -- Keiran Goddard, author of <i>I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning</i>


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