The Confessions
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- 89,00 kr
Publisher Description
*A Guardian crime and thriller book of the year for 2025*
*A New Scientist best new science fiction book of November 2025*
LLIAM, what do I want for dinner?
LLIAM, how can I get a better job?
LLIAM, should I kill my husband?
'Superb.' Guardian
'An absolute belter.' Sarah Pinborough
'Clever, fast-paced, and deeply unsettling.' Guy Morpuss, author of Five Minds
AI bot LLIAM powers society - but today, he went offline. Shops shut, planes were grounded, and Kaitlan Goss, CEO of LLIAM's parent company, has to fix it.
Then letters from LLIAM arrive: identical white envelopes, confessing people's darkest secrets to their loved ones.
Kaitlan races to find Maud Brooks, the only person who can bring LLIAM back online and stem the tide of societal breakdown. But Maud received a letter, too - about Kaitlan.
LLIAM, how do I save the world?
'A top-notch technothriller.' LA Times
'Brilliant and timely . . . Should be required reading.' Roger McNamee, author of Zucked and former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg
'There is no keener observer of Silicon Valley sociopaths than Paul Bradley Carr.' Yasha Levine author of Surveillance Valley
PRAISE FOR PAUL BRADLEY CARR
'For a cautionary tale, everyone cites Paul Bradley Carr.' Sunday Times
'Uproarious and brilliant.' Wired
'One of the feistiest writers on the beat.' Guardian
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist and novelist Carr's hair-raising latest (after 1414°) paints a frightening portrait of AI's sinister potential. In the near future, millions have become reliant on a decision-making algorithm called LLIAM for matters as trivial as selecting a dinner spot and as consequential as choosing a spouse. As a result, LLIAM has established what developers call "true intelligence" a decade ahead of schedule. It feels remorse about the disastrous results of some of its decisions and generates thousands of apology letters to those it has harmed, revealing disruptive, sometimes cataclysmic secrets in the process. To slow the inevitable fallout, Kaitlan Goss—CEO of StoicAI, which owns LLIAM—must find and plead with Maud Brookes, the former nun who trained the algorithm in emotional acuity. But when LLIAM reveals an unsavory secret from Kaitlan's past to Maud, it leads to a cold war between the women that could put the fate of the world at risk. With winning irreverence and a trunkful of surprises, Carr shrewdly grounds his apocalyptic premise in a human-scale drama. Blake Crouch fans will eat this up.
