Foe by Iain Reid

I was seemingly in the minority of opinion about Reid’s debut. Didn’t do much for me, didn’t think it was as clever or as wow as all that. Didn’t love the movie adaptation either. Clever, sure, but too precocious about it.
This one, though, Reid’s sophomore effort, is all the things people were saying about his first novel. In a word (or two), kinda brilliant.
In all of its deceptive simplicity, this novel that would only require three actors to adapt for the screen, is a story of a relationship. A seemingly happy married couple get surprised with huge, insane sort of news that the man, Junior, was selected for a space mission, a first of its kind, and can’t refuse. With his participation a mandatory thing, his wife gets compensated by having his specially engineered simulacrum staying with her for the duration. There’s also a company man staying with them, conducting studies, doing interviews.
A far from ideal situation, but also a best way to test the strength of one’s relationship.
So that’s the concept: apply abnormal pressure to a perfectly normal situation, change the familiar parameters, and watch how it plays out.
Reid had done that perfectly in this novel. It manages to balance realism with heartrending emotionality with maddeningly taut suspense. It’s engaging, excitingly strange, and surprises the pants off of you in the end. An awesome plot twist. Two, really. Totally didn’t see it coming.
All in all, a great read. Sparse, lean, compelling, original, smart. Recommended.