The Body Builders - by Albertine Clarke (Hardcover)

About the Book

"If Philip K. Dick had written The Bell Jar" (Camille Bordas) it would resemble Albertine Clarke's mesmerizing debut about the frayed borders between our bodies and minds.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Debutiful, Lit Hub, and Our Culture

Book Synopsis

"If Philip K. Dick had written The Bell Jar" (Camille Bordas) it would resemble Albertine Clarke's mesmerizing debut about the frayed borders between our bodies and minds.

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Debutiful, Lit Hub, and Our Culture

Ada lives a solitary life. She spends her days in her London apartment building's swimming pool, occasionally visiting with her cousin Francesca and meeting her friends, each of them chatting, drinking, posing invitations Ada ignores. Ada's parents are recently divorced after her father became a bodybuilder: he spends his days at the gym, which is crowded and bright, warm with human proximity, infrequently calling to express minor concerns around his daughter's well-being.

When she meets a man named Atticus by the pool, Ada immediately feels an intimate connection between them: they share a life, in a way she can't explain. Little by little, Ada's estrangement from her familiar surroundings and from reality widens, as though seeing her reflection through a mirror, pieces of it falling away. After her mother entreats Ada to join her on a remote Greek holiday, Ada is jolted out of the physical world and into a new, artificial environment, one that a mysterious and potentially otherworldly force has created and designed for her. As this brilliant first novel pivots with masterful effect into the surreal and speculative, we move through Ada's experiences of life like spokes on a wheel, profoundly surprised by the enduring mystery of our existence, and of our relationships with ourselves and others. When a person's life, in the odd space between mind and body, is inherently one of isolation, are our connections with those around us merely projections of ourselves? And if not, where do they come from?

Albertine Clarke transforms the speculative into an entirely singular experience of deep interiority. The precision, subtlety, and confidence of her writing is nothing short of astonishing. THE BODY BUILDERS is new classic of the speculative fiction genre, landing like a blow, widening a crack that allows us to perceive the world wholly differently than we ever imagined.

Review Quotes

"Is speculative surrealism a thing? If it's not, I'm making it one to write about why I'm looking forward to The Body Builders...Lonely, but also fantastical. Definitely my kind of niche." --Oliver Scialdone, Literary Hub's "Most Anticipated Books of 2026"

"A hypnotic novel about the separation between mind and body, The BodyBuilders narrates Ada, who, reeling from her parents' divorce after her father decides to get jacked, falls into the orbit of a man named Atticus and sublimates herself within the speculative." --Sam Franzini, Our Culture "Most Anticipated Books of Winter 2026"

"Clarke looks inward into her characters and I desperately want to learn more about them." --Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful "Most Anticipated Debuts of 2026"

"I was enraptured by this book. The Body Builders exhibits Albertine Clarke's remarkable gifts - the boldness and precision of her imagination, the breadth of her ethical and intellectual concerns. She is a fearless writer, and I felt a shiver of admiration as I read every page." --Katie Kitamura, author of AUDITION

"If Philip K. Dick had written The Bell Jar, it may have resembled The Body Builders-at once smooth as android skin and sharp as shards of broken mirror. A stunning and haunting debut." --Camille Bordas, author of THE MATERIAL

"By turns tender and unsettling, The Body Builders is a spare yet profound enquiry into the bonds of family and the limits of the self, and what it means to be connected to other people. Full of stylish and unexpected touches - a debut that marks an important new talent." --Tash Aw, author of THE SOUTH

"An exciting and remarkably controlled debut using a brilliant sci-fi conceit to tell a story about estrangement, selfhood, and love." --Catherine Lacey, author of THE MÖBIUS BOOK

"Clarke's gift for worldbuilding and character creation is arresting from the opening pages. She manages to lead readers into a space in which time, place, and identity blur and shift like the shimmer on an oil slick without ever losing them-an admirable feat." --Kirkus

"An alluring fever dream of a novel...Clarke grounds the bizarre details and vivid imagery in meticulous prose...Readers will find much to dissect in this intriguing story of an existential crisis." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author