The Folded Man

In 2018, Manchester is a rotten city propped up by a few bad men. The first industrial city is dying - its people left to fend for themselves. Now, the only currency is trust and Brian Meredith - addict, depressive, wheelchair-bound - has new trouble with old problems. It doesn't help that Brian is a mermaid. Born with sirenomelia to Jehovah's Witnesses, his legs are fused from thigh to foot. His mother brought him up as a myth - hiding the truth, or otherwise helping him to repress it. And in this decaying city, where grey morals match grey skies, Brian's condition is something both friends and enemies will use. Sitting somewhere between literary fiction, crime and sci-fi, it's an exhilarating, challenging and wildly daring debut novel that addresses the fears of now through an idea of tomorrow. The Folded Man was given second place in the fiercely competitive Dundee International Book Prize by judges Stephen Fry and Philip Pullman. ""Hill's frightening dystopian vision of Britain's near future. . . Some combination of Raymond Chandler, Trainspotting, and Philip K. Dick, Hill's unsettling novel is not an escapist fantasy, but rather a call to arms, a plea to change the future.""--Publishers Weekly, Aug. 26, 2013