Uose’s title signals the key question in this thought-provoking novel set largely in a speculative near-future where Britain has voted in a referendum to allow the use of Yareta, an American wonder drug that will allow us to prolong our lives. Yareta offers the chance to halt the ageing process, with the caveat that you can still die. The long-term effects of such a drug are a mystery and there are some ominous hushed-up side effects. A wide cast of characters are introduced but the central focus is on Yuki and Sam, a couple whose relationship is thrown into jeopardy by their diverging opinions on the drug. When one takes the drug, the other ages naturally, meaning their lives are physically set on course to drift apart. Along the way Uose introduces great moral queries about the drug, its origins, its ramifications and the legal, ethical and economic problems it poses. Yuki and Sam’s connections to characters across the globe also show different countries’ responses to the drug, among a richly imagined dystopian world. I am already storing this one up to suggest to our village book group.