Safe Return Doubtful

British Literature – published June 2026

This bold, experimental and thoroughly enjoyable short novel concerns an alien invasion of Britain set in the near future.

The iGhetti have arrived, albeit slowly and steadily and in a variety of forms to British shores. Sometimes they cause havoc in daily life and sometimes they just observe from the perimeter. In the wake of their arrival, the government is crumbling, and a dense fog has descended on the whole of Europe. Various odd and uncanny objects wash ashore. It is a time of chaos, but the novel’s two main characters, Philip the beachcomber and Marnie the elderly artist, are determined that their lives should be affected as little as possible.

This is a gem of a novella, and one that refuses to be labelled by genre; it leans towards science fiction but it isn’t, also towards fantasy but it isn’t. Just as it settles into something like a more usual piece of writing something quite unexpected and weird happens, an elderly woman nonchalantly murders a teen, for example, and a moment later she is doing this dishes and admonishing the grandchildren – did that really happen? It begs for the passage to be reread..

It’s one of those short books in which every sentence, indeed every word, has a function, stressing Harrison’s theme of disconnection, a reality that is absurdist by its nature.

It’s one of the books of the year, the only quibble, and it’s not really that, would be with the title.

My GoodReads score 5 / 5