The Definitions

“A thrilling novel that asks profound questions about love and language, selfhood and memory. One of those books that you want to read again as soon as you've finished, it consoles even as it frightens, appalls even as it reveals how much we have to treasure. It has earned its place on my shelf of favourite science fiction, alongside Ishiguro, Ravn, Butler, and Chiang.”
—Louisa Hall, author of Speak and Reproduction

“An unnerving story of our ominous present era huddled in a cloak of post-apocalyptic speculation, Matt Greene's The Definitions digs—and digs hard—into the nature of language, of reality, of what we can and must not believe about what we're told about ourselves and our world. It's harrowingly well constructed, revealing its secrets in a series of icy, controlled detonations, and thoroughly earns the sense of heartbreak I'm sure you'll feel at its finale. As I was reading I thought I detected glimpses of Ray Bradbury, of H. G. Wells and George Orwell, even of Lewis Carroll, but The Definitions is very much its own creature, and I am in awe of Greene's taut, shiversome eloquence.”
—Benjamin Dreyer, New York Times bestselling author of Dreyer's English

“Deceptively gentle and ultimately devastating, The Definitions holds a delicate line between giving us enough to be utterly compelling and quietly paring back enough to keep us guessing. The Center, the narrator and the drifting language will haunt my thoughts, and my words, for some time.”
—Han Smith, author of Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking, shortlisted for the 2024 Goldsmiths Prize

"A terrifying glimpse at what happens when language, self and memory are taken from us. Shimmers with intelligence, terror and deep humanity." ― Ben Pester, author of The Expansion Project and Am I in the Right Place?