Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan

In a world not quite like this one, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing has achieved an astonishing breakthrough in artificial intelligence.

In an alternative 1980s London, Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality.

This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever – and soon a love triangle forms, which leads Charlie, Miranda and Adam to a profound moral dilemma. What makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine truly understand the human heart?

Provocative and thrilling, Machines Like Me warns of the power to invent things beyond our control.