One

My mind went blank. I'd fallen asleep at the wheel again, the windows wound down and the radio announcer yelling into the early morning darkness.

Then I wake up and I'm home, mounted into my driveway. And there's a woman there, sitting upright in the middle of the concrete, her eyes closed. Her breath hanging, curling like smoke in the early morning air. The sun has just started to rise, newborn daylight stretching shadows and revealing the basic shapes of the world. TV antennas poking from rooftops against the horizon.

And here she is, her body stacked on top of itself, her eyes shut tight like a child counting in a game of hide-and-seek.

Marcus had his heart broken by Caitlin, his one true love, and cannot see a way forward in life. Having alienated himself from his family and friends, he works nights and shuns normal society. But not even disrupted sleep and depression can explain the strange behaviours that will suddenly take him over.

Sarah has been making a living being 'the one' for dying men. A palliative care nurse, she is paid extra to make those in her care fall in love with her, and believe they are loved in return, as they play out the last days of their lives.

Through a chance encounter, Sarah and Marcus are thrown together on a road trip, where they begin to explore the limitations of friendship, family and love, before a devastating revelation changes everything.

Fast-paced, immediate and perceptive, One is the highly original second novel from a young Australian writer rapidly establishing himself as a major talent.