The Unit

The premise of Ninni Holmqvist's debut novel will be familiar with anyone who's read (or indeed seen the recent screen version) Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go. Just as in the Booker-shortlisted novel, The Unit concerns a shadowy governmental programme that confines people and uses their organs to help others. However, this is no pale retread of a more famous work: the unit is a startling and chilling novel that owes more to Orwell and Huxley than Ishiguro.

The Unit of the title is a state-of-the-art facility where loners and outcasts, people who no longer fit the bill of 'productive' can live out the last of their days in comfort. The only downside is that they are forced to donate their organs. Fifty-year-old Dorrit Wegner is a classic example: an outsider without family. But once inside the unit, and surrounded by kindred spirits, she realises that life is not something she's willing to give up - especially when she falls in love.

An icy satire on what constitutes a useful human life, The Unit is an unflinching yet curiously affecting read. While echoes of other works are obvious, Holmqvist never once makes you feel like you're reading anything other than something hauntingly original.