The After Wife reminded me of Matt Haig's The Humans for its juxtaposition of a non-human in the guise of a human. In The Humans it's difficult for the other characters to tell the difference between the human and the non-human because the non-human appears to be human: he looks exactly like the Professor he's killed and whose body he now inhabits. Even his wife doesn't suspect. But he's come to kill her too, to protect the brilliant mathematical discovery the Professor made which the non-human's race, the Vonnadorians, believe the human race is too backward to be entrusted with. Needless to say things don't go according to plan. And the non-human falls in love.

In The After Wife Aidan's beloved wife Rachel dies. But she was a brilliant scientist who leaves behind a gift for her husband and their daughter Chloe. A gift which will help them come to terms with the loss of their wife and mother. A gift called iRachel. Who is a robot. But a very very advanced robot who looks just like Rachel. Along with Aidan and Chloe, iRachel narrates sections of the novel and when at the end she, as she puts it, feels

A click inside. I can only describe it as an unlocking.

She 'remembers' much and this prompts a series of thoughtful explorations (all within the story) of the differences between human and non-human and, in iRachel's acknowledgement that she will never be able to love, I found a sad human echo and a reminder about what it is to be human and so to love. And how lucky we are that we can love even though, inevitably, those we love will one day die.

iRachel returns memories and love to the real Rachel's family in sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, often in her robot-technical language ways but always ways that, in the end, heal. It's a lovely idea that got me thinking and laughing and recognising, not for the first time, that without love we really are only mechanical beings.