The Memory of Animals

Neffy is running from grief, debt, and the mistake that derailed her marine-biology career when she volunteers for a controlled vaccine trial in a London hospital. Then a virus tears through the city, communications go dark, and only Neffy and four other volunteers remain in the locked unit as the streets below fall silent. As food runs low and the strangers around her guard their own secrets, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the outbreak was developing a device that lets people re-enter their own memories. She withdraws into hers, replaying a childhood bisected by divorce, a recent love affair, her work with octopuses, and the single act that ended everything, while the survivors decide what to do with the time they have left.