Sympathy

An electrifying novel of blood ties, online identities, and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age.

At 23, Alice Hare leaves England for New York - the city of her birth, before she was adopted by a British mother and an American father. She falls in love with Manhattan, and becomes fixated on Mizuko Himura, an intriguing Japanese writer whose life has strange parallels with her own.

As Alice closes in on her ‘internet twin’, realities multiply and fact and fiction begin to blur. The relationship between the two women exposes a dark tangle of lies and sexual encounters. Three families collide as Alice learns that the swiftest answer to an ancient question - where do we come from? - can now be found online.

Claimed as the first great Instagram novel, Sympathy is a razor sharp take on personal accountability, blood ties, and our tormented efforts to connect in the digital age.