Infinite Ground

A luminous debut novel of modern alienation, of the sinister beauty of the human body and of the enduring splendour of the natural world.

During a sweltering South American summer, a family convenes for dinner at a restaurant. Midway through the meal, Carlos disappears. An experienced, semi-retired inspector takes the case, but what should be a routine investigation becomes something strange, intangible, even sinister. The corporation for which Carlos worked seems to serve no purpose; the staff talk of their missing colleague's alarming, shifting physical symptoms; a forensic scientist uncovers evidence of curious abnormalities in the thriving microorganisms that shared Carlos's body. As the inspector relives and retraces the missing man's footsteps, the trail leads him away from the city sprawl and deep into the country's rainforest interior, where he encounters both horror and wonder.

Stunning - a totally original, surreal mystery shot through with hints of the best of César Aira, Vladimir Nabokov, Angela Carter, and Julio Cortázar. Smart, clever, and honest. I doubt you've read anything quite like it. -- Jeff VanderMeer, author of The Southern Reach trilogy
Weird, wonderful, totally indefinable Guardian, Books of the Year
Sublime Irish Times, Books of the Year
Astonishing Herald, Books of the Year
An electrifying piece of work: strange, terrifying, riveting, and written with scintillating intelligence. In its thinking about the porosity between the human and the non-human, it stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ballard, Lem, VanderMeer, Tom McCarthy -- Neel Mukherjee, author of The Lives of Others
This is the work of a most singular and inventive mind, matched by writing with real flair and clarity. It is a book alive with ideas and cock-eyed intelligence, brimming with passages of genuine brilliance. Infinite Ground does that magical thing that only the very best novels do: it makes you see the world afresh. Dazzling stuff -- Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of His Bloody Project
Strange, haunting, dislocating -- Ian Rankin, author of the Rebus series
Brimming with strong, startling ideas... A curious and often remarkable book Literary Review
A novel of intelligence, grace, cunning and warped imagination, one that melds and sometimes clashes styles and influences to create something original and unsettling. It is a bravura performance, and one that announces Martin MacInnes as one of our most exciting new voices -- Stuart Evers, author of Your Father Sends his Love
Labyrinthine, beautifully written and teeming with ideas about fiction and reality that linger long in the mind... A frighteningly good debut novel -- Lee Rourke, author of Vulgar Things

Martin MacInnes was born in Inverness in 1983. He has an MA from the University of York, has read at international science and literature festivals, and is the winner of a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award and the 2014 Manchester Fiction Prize. He lives in Edinburgh.

A luminous debut novel of modern alienation, of the sinister beauty of the human body and of the enduring splendour of the natural world. During a sweltering South American summer, a family convenes for dinner at a restaurant. Midway through the meal, Carlos disappears. An experienced, semi-retired inspector takes the case, but what should be a routine investigation becomes something strange, intangible, even sinister. The corporation for which Carlos worked seems to serve no purpose; the staff talk of their missing colleague's alarming, shifting physical symptoms; a forensic scientist uncovers evidence of curious abnormalities in the thriving microorganisms that shared Carlos's body. As the inspector relives and retraces the missing man's footsteps, the trail leads him away from the city sprawl and deep into the country's rainforest interior, where he encounters both horror and wonder.

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