The Nucleus of Reality: or the Recollections of Thomas P—

"The Nucleus of Reality is strange, existential, and curious. It might give you a lot to ponder about if you dig deep enough… [It] reminded me a tad of The Stranger by Albert Camus… [It's] a stream of consciousness first-person novel with the most unreliable narrator you’ve ever met." Rummy's Recs

"A beautifully described story of a man trying to remember why he ended up losing everything but himself." Emily Quinn, A Quintillion Words

"A clever interpretation of a man’s grief and depression." Melanie’s Reads

"It’s not easy reading but it’s worth it. It’s one of the more realistic depictions of mental health that I have read recently." Books by Bindu

The truth is all around you

Thomas P– is exhausted. He's been travelling for work so much he barely knows where he is. And then, while waiting for a table at a restaurant, he sees someone from his past. Exactly as she was twenty years ago, when they first knew each other. Deeply shaken, he tries to carry on as if nothing happened.

But when it happens again, in a different restaurant, in a different city, Thomas's world begins to unravel. Haunted by a magnificent black parrot and a past he wants to forget, he becomes paranoid, unsure whether he can trust himself and the world around him.

After he sees another friend he thought he had forgotten, he realises he is lost and alone, and afraid of his own mind. Then an enigmatic woman tells him he is not seeing things but rather his memory has been mined to create life-like androids that are replacing the human race one by one.

And then he is arrested.

Will Thomas resist the mysterious woman and get his life back? Or will he join her cult and take up arms in the fight to save us all?

The Nucleus of Reality, or the Recollections of Thomas P—, is the story of a man trying to remember why he ended up losing everything but himself.