The answers

'This summer's Must-Read novel... a darkly funny, tartly feminist look at the tender state of our bodies and souls' Vogue 'An unsettling, whip-smart meditation on love' Independent'A clever, gripping read... the dystopian take on dating that everyone will be reading this year' StylistMary is out of options.

Estranged from her family, plagued by debt and beset by chronic pain, she signs up for 'The Girlfriend Experiment' - a mysterious project masterminded by a famous Hollywood actor, who, frustrated by his romantic and creative failure, hires a collection of women to fulfil the different roles of a relationship.

Mary is to play the Emotional Girlfriend, alongside a Maternal Girlfriend, a Mundane Girlfriend, an Anger Girlfriend and, of course, an Intimacy Team.

Each woman has her debts and her difficulties, her past loves and her secrets.

As Mary and the actor are drawn ever closer together, the nature of the experiment changes, and the Girlfriends find themselves exposed to new perils, foremost among them, love.