Winner of the 2019 Wellcome Prize 

In Murmur, a hallucinatory masterwork, Will Eaves invites us into the brilliant mind of Alec Pryor, a character inspired by Alan Turing. Turing, father of artificial intelligence and pioneer of radical new techniques to break the Nazi Enigma cipher during World War II, was later persecuted by the British state for gross indecency with another male and forced to undergo chemical castration. Set during the devastating period before Turing’s suicide, Murmur evokes an extraordinary life, the beauty and sorrows of love, and the nature of consciousness.

Will Eaves is the author of two poetry collections and five novels, including Murmur, the first of his novels to be published in the United States. His work has appeared in the Guardian, New Yorker, and Yale Review, and has been shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, Encore Award, Goldsmiths Prize, and BBC National Short Story Award. Previously the arts editor of the Times Literary Supplement, he now teaches writing at the University of Warwick and lives in London.

Praise for Murmur:

‘[Murmur] is as bracingly intelligent as it is brave… . [Eaves] knows that Turing’s theories of consciousness have implications for fiction, and that fiction can operate at the frontiers of what we know about the workings of our minds.’–Guardian

‘Murmur is a fully achieved literary experiment, digging deep into all the dimensions of human consciousness.’ – Goldsmiths Prize judge’s citation

‘[Murmur] is masterful–compassionate, principled, and moving. It is deeply wise, with the aching loneliness of both human indignity and dignity, despair and courage.’ –Anne Michaels, author of Fugitive Pieces and All We Saw

‘A really extraordinary book, unlike any other.’ –Max Porter, author of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers