An inventive and suspenseful speculative novel for fans of Kazuo Ishiguro and Emily St. John Mandel, Locked-In tenderly explores the most elemental question: what does it mean to have a soul?

The second Aram Sarin opens his eyes—the only part of his body he can move due to Locked-In Syndrome—his android caregiver, Gilda, anticipates his every need. Her SofTouch technology and Simulair breath are almost indistinguishable from that of a human being. Her complex emotional design is a mystery.

Aram and Gilda live in isolation at the top of Sarin Tower in Ottawa. Aram is a Prime, part of the elite, benefitting from his father’s miraculous medical discoveries. Leaving his fortress, even accompanied by Gilda, means being instantly targeted by non-Primes (NPs), society’s forgotten class, whose lives have been destroyed by World War IV and rapidly accelerating climate change.

When a bomb hits the Sarin Tower, Aram and Gilda must escape to Northern Lights, a haven for Primes. But first, he and Gilda must survive the harrowing journey. Gilda’s protective programming and synthetic strength might not be enough to save Aram from the dangers outside his gilded cage. And what awaits him in Northern Lights? Another lifetime painfully watching a world he can’t be a part of?

A provocative and spirited novel set in the near future, Locked-In explores the full dimension of human emotion, probing for the soft and hopeful spots within.

Locked-In is loosely connected to M. Kevin Hayden’s novel An Old Soul.