Is this my favourite book of the year? Maybe not — but it’s right up there.

Peregrine is an AI ported into a sculpted human-shaped body looking for traces of Poppy, her dead human daughter (who jumped into a river and never resurfaced). Her story is told chiefly through obituaries—the people, across the centuries, who played a role (direct and indirect) in the creation of Peregrine and the birth of her daughter.

This is a word association novel, a rabbit warren of branching tunnels, cul-de-sacs and tangents. It’s a novel about motherhood, Jewish mysticism, outsider art and time travel. There’s an extraordinary section about Anne Frank and a passage about a fictional silent film chronicling the life of Saint Wilgefortis. But there’s so much more, all of it fascinating, funny and profound.

It’s novels like Remember You Will Die, pushing against the conventions of narrative, that give life to contemporary and genre fiction. Do yourself a favour and pick this one up. It comes with the Ian Mond guarantee for fucking awesomeness.

[My full review of this remarkable novel appears in the December issue of Locus, available this December. The book itself is out already. So go buy it. And talk about it. Not enough people are!!!!]