Users: A Novel

Marrying the philosophical absurdities of life, technology, start-up culture, and family, Users is for readers of Kevin Nguyen’s New Waves, Dave Eggers’s The Circle, and viewers of the hit Apple TV+ original series Severance

“A perceptive, subtly moving novel... Winnette’s thoughtful depiction gives [Miles] a heart that’s not beyond redemption.”  -  Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle

Miles, a lead creative at a midsize virtual reality company known for its “original experiences,” has engineered a new product called The Ghost Lover. Wildly popular from the outset, the “game” is simple: a user’s simulated life is almost identical to their reality, except they’re haunted by the ghost of an ex-lover. 

However, when a shift in the company's strategic vision puts The Ghost Lover at the centre of a platform-wide controversy, Miles becomes the target of user outrage and starts receiving a series of anonymous death threats. 

The once-promising road to success becomes a narrow set of choices for Miles, who, in a last-ditch effort to save his job, pitches his masterpiece, a revolutionary device code-named the Egg, which will transform the company. The consequences for Miles seal him inside the walls of his life as what was once anxiety explodes into devastating absoluteness. 

“Told in refreshingly unadorned prose that lets Winnette’s characters and ideas shine... Users is not only a book for today or a warning about tomorrow, but a timeless and moving story about fatherhood and one man’s yearning for a more meaningful life.”  -  Jessamine Chan, New York Times Book Review

In a world rife with the unchecked power and ambition of tech, Users investigates - with both humour and creeping dread - how interpersonal experiences and private decisions influence the hasty developments that have the power to permanently alter the landscape of human experience.