Attachment Theory

This is a surreal science-fiction satire set during the fourteenth month of an alien invasion of Earth. Its central human character is Margaret Wiggle, a recently separated Florida woman who has moved back into her parents’ home, while its first-person narrator is Angus, a young extraterrestrial cadet assigned to observe her. What initially looks like a comic story about an alien studying an anxious human gradually becomes a novel about grief, parasocial relationships, political radicalisation and the attachments that make both humans and aliens vulnerable.

Margaret is already falling apart when Angus begins observing her. Her marriage to successful lawyer Tad has ended, her father Kalvin is seriously ill, she is losing weight and she has developed a habit of wearing oversized trench coats even in the suffocating Florida heat. Her younger brother Frankie is equally unstable in a different direction. Unemployed and chronically online, he has become obsessed with masculinity, testosterone and “looksmaxxing”: chewing gum to strengthen his jaw, eliminating supposedly estrogen-producing foods, buying dubious supplements and following online personalities who tell men that contemporary society has made them weak.

Their mother Carmen holds the household together. She cooks, maintains a garden and runs a small food business from the kitchen, recreating dishes from the country she left behind. Her customers are also her friends, and Carmen’s instinctive response to disaster is to feed and care for people.