From the Booker Prize winner and bestselling author of Atonement and Saturday--"a sharply intelligent novel of ideas" (The New York Times) that asks whether a machine can understand the human heart, or whether we are the ones who lack understanding. Machines Like Me takes place in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first synthetic humans and--with Miranda´s help--he designs Adam´s personality. The near-perfect human that emerges is beautiful, strong, and clever. It isn´t long before a love triangle soon forms, and these three beings confront a profound moral dilemma.