Sike - by Fred Lunzer (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A story of boy meets girl meets AI therapist, Sike explores our aching pursuit of love and self-control Adrian earns his living writing lyrics for rappers he never meets, and finds success with a hit song about his own fruitless search for love. After his last relationship ends in a spiral of angst, Adrian decides it's time to try Sike: the new lauded and elite AI psychotherapy app that tracks your every move and emotion, and guides you toward mental contentment. He soon falls for Maquie, a smart and pragmatic venture capitalist scouring London's tech scene for the next business boom. She can see no potential investments though, nothing sparkles. She wants to find a business as successful as Sike, and yet she is also one of the holdouts who refuse to use it. Shifting between Adrian and Maquie's perspectives as it tracks the fraught first year of their relationship, Sike is a story of two people wrestling with connection, identity, anxiety, success, and the limits of our obsession with self-analysis and awareness. For fans of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and the modern love stories of Sally Rooney, Fred Lunzer's debut novel brings us an incisive and intimate deep dive into the reach"--

Book Synopsis

A story of boy meets girl meets AI therapist, Sike explores our aching pursuit of love and self-control

Adrian earns his living writing lyrics for rappers he never meets, and finds success with a hit song about his own fruitless search for love. After his last relationship ends in a spiral of angst, Adrian decides it's time to try Sike: the new lauded and elite AI psychotherapy app that tracks your every move and emotion, and guides you toward mental contentment.

He soon falls for Maquie, a smart and pragmatic venture capitalist scouring London's tech scene for the next business boom. She can see no potential investments though, nothing sparkles. She wants to find a business as successful as Sike, and yet she is also one of the holdouts who refuse to use it.

Shifting between Adrian and Maquie's perspectives as it tracks the fraught first year of their relationship, Sike is a story of two people wrestling with connection, identity, anxiety, success, and the limits of our obsession with self-analysis and awareness.

For fans of Kazuo Ishiguro's Klara and the Sun and the modern love stories of Sally Rooney, Fred Lunzer's debut novel brings us an incisive and intimate deep dive into the reach for clarity by a curious and ambitious, anxious and irresolute generation.

Review Quotes

"Part love story, Part A.I. story, Fred Lunzer's SIKE is that rare thing, a beautifully written novel that's both ingenious and ingenuous. It's of the moment, certainly, but for all its knowledge and knowingness--about tech and philosophy and bar culture and rap lyrics--it takes its polyglot, globetrotting characters on the most old-fashioned journey of all: a trip straight to the heart. I've never read anything quite like it."
--Joshua Henkin, author of Morningside Heights and The World Without You

"Reading the insightful, clever, and tender SIKE is like having your best friend continuously whisper hair-raising truths in your ear. A story about art, ambition, self-knowledge, and most of all, love, Fred Lunzer's winning novel accomplishes what the best speculative fiction does, showing us that a window to the future is ultimately a mirror that reflects back our wobbly, ridiculous, and luminous selves.
--Katie Williams, author of My Murder and Tell the Machine Good Night

"Sike's sexy, provocative take on AI and modern love is a trenchant reminder that novels by real people enrich our inner lives more effectively than iPhones ever will."
--James Hannaham, author of Didn't Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta and Delicious Foods

"Lunzer is eager to demonstrate his awareness of the thorny issues his book raises, and initially succeeds with clever, self-assured prose...delightful phrasing and figurative language... A smart, elaborate, and discursive modern romance."
--Kirkus Review

"There's plenty to like from Lunzer: a knack for knitting together elegant exposition; a keen sense of the pacing of scene... In the end, the novel is a sincere representation of two young professionals finding love and companionship."
--Washington Post

About the Author

Fred Lunzer was born in London in 1988. He moved to Tokyo at age six, and lived there on and off as a child and adult. His work in business and AI strategy crossed fields that include life sciences, music, ethics, and gastronomy, and he completed an MBA in Barcelona in 2019. Throughout, he wrote journalism, short stories, poetry, and novels. He holds British and German citizenship, and lives in London.