Who Wants to Live Forever

‘I loved it so much I wanted it go on forever’ – Fern Brady * Author of Strong Female Character *‘Who Wants to Live Forever is dazzling: a cold hard reckoning with reality; a constantly surprising feat of imagination, philosophy, humanity, warmth and love.’ – Jessica Stanley * author of Consider Yourself Kissed *‘Beautifully written and constructed, a book that shifts elegantly between decades and countries and glimpses of a changing world to tell its story of two imperfect people and the pull of their connection’ – Holly Gramazio * author of The Husbands *‘I have devoured this novel. Not just a genius concept, this is a beautifully written book with characters so real that by the end you’ll swear you’d really met them. A brilliant debut.’ – Louise Hare * Author of This Lovely City *‘A concept that asks profound questions about ambition, love, parenthood and mortality.’ * Glamour *‘The best book I have read this year’ – Aja Barber * Author of Consumed: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change and Consumerism *‘Who Wants To Live Forever probes and searches, like the best fiction does, without necessarily providing answers to the questions it asks. What gives a human life value? Does more time on this earth actually equate to more happiness? What even is happiness? This is a novel of love and of ambition, of regrets and of acceptance, written by a writer in possession of a keen insight and a powerful empathy. Highly compelling.’ – Ian Russell-Hsieh * Author of I’m New Here *‘A wonderfully entertaining and deeply thought-provoking novel that asks serious and substantial questions about how we live now, how we might end up living, and how we actually want to live. I loved all these characters so much - Uose’s skilful and sensitive depiction of their conflicts and desires is a triumph. This is a must-read book for 2025, especially for fans of Gabrielle Zevin and Kim Stanley Robinson.’ – Julianne Pachico * Author of Jungle House *‘An urgent and timely book that handles its subjects with patience and affection. Full of longing, the ache of hindsight and the unnerving slide into capitalism’s latest stage.’ – Season Butler * Author of Cygnet *‘Who Wants to Live Forever is a deeply affecting novel about timing, family, desire, the fetishization of youth, the pursuit of greatness, and what we might be willing to sacrifice along the way. Hanna Thomas Uose has created a fully realized future; like the best speculative fiction, this novel holds a magnifying glass to familiar horrors: climate change, the evils of the pharmaceutical industry, international politics, and class disparities. But she’s also created memorable flesh and blood characters around this philosophical debate of eternity; their love and their losses will stick with me for, well, forever.’ – Katie Yee * author of Maggie: Or, A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar *‘An ambitious novel expertly executed; full of twists, turns and tenderness’ – Ashley Hickson-Lovence * Author of The 392 *‘Time-bending epic’ * Daily Mail *‘Who Wants To Live Forever is an utterly convincing - and frighteningly plausible - vision of our very-near future. Hanna Thomas Uose spins vivid, compelling human drama from vast philosophical questions with wit, elegance and verve.’ – Lisa Owens * Author of Not Working and forthcoming Natural Disaster *‘Both a timeless romance, and a thought-provoking exploration of the state and future of the world, Who Wants To Live Forever is a bold, inventive novel about the human experience which dares to leave the reader pondering the biggest mystery of all: the meaning of life.’ – Ela Lee * Author of Jaded *‘Voyeuristically fastinating … So unsettling’ * TLS *‘Bleak yet hopeful, romantic yet lonely, this novel is both ordinary and extraordinary.’ * Radio Times *

Hanna Thomas Uose is a British Japanese writer living in London. In 2023, she completed the MA in Prose Fiction at the University of East Anglia. In 2022, she won the Morley Prize for Unpublished Writers of Colour and was shortlisted for the Orion/DHA Space to Write Project. She was also selected for the Asian Women Writers mentorship programme. Hanna has spent the last sixteen years working in advocacy and campaigns with organisations such as 350.org, Free Tibet, Greenpeace International, Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, Level Up, Liberty, and UN Global Pulse.