A Novel
by John Marrs
Readers' rating:
Published May 2023
432 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey? Black Mirror meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman's The Power in this dark, high-concept novel by the bestselling author of The One.
Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society's ills—the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.
But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives—monitoring every word, every minor disagreement…and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.
"[A] smart Orwellian thriller set in a near-future U.K. where the financial impact of several pandemics has led to drastic measures... Marrs builds on techno-dystopian ideas explored in prior books to craft a scarily plausible world. Readers will be riveted." —Publishers Weekly
"The king of near-future what-ifs is back with a smart and chilling page-turner. Twisty, unsettling, scarily believable and thought provoking, this is his best yet." —Ellery Lloyd, author of The Club
"A scarily plausible alternative future with a truly twisted narrative. Tensely plotted and terrifyingly imagined." —Harriet Tyce, bestselling author of Blood Orange
"Clever, compelling and terrifyingly plausible. A near future nightmare that grips from the first page and never lets go. The Marriage Act is a brilliant examination of relationships and the power we let others have over us. And talk about a page-turner. This one will leave you with paper cuts!" —C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man
"An absolute blinder of a book… Another gripping page-turner." —Claire Allan, author of The Liar's Daughter
This information about The Marriage Act was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
John Marrs is an author and former journalist based in London and Northamptonshire. After spending his career interviewing celebrities from the worlds of television, film and music for numerous national newspapers and magazines, he is now a full-time author. His books include No1 bestseller and Netflix series The One, The Passengers, award winning What Lies Between Us and The Good Samaritan. Follow him at www.johnmarrsauthor.co.uk, on Twitter @johnmarrs1, on Instagram @johnmarrs.author and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/johnmarrsauthor.
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