At Its Heart

The Matrix meets Houellebecq in Viggo Bjerring’s playful debut, At Its Heart, a spiraling speculative novel about artificial intelligence, literature, and finding true meaning in an age of loneliness.

In the near future, the welfare state has been dismantled in favor of eco-capitalism and post-pandemic austerity. Algorithms have taken over, the unemployed are dubbed “The Unusables” and many live precariously from paycheck to paycheck.

32-year-old Mads spends his nights trawling easyjobs.com for work. He proof-reads Korean soap ads, edits press releases for start-ups, writes copy for influencers in order to make ends meet. One day, he finally lands a well-paid job: ghostwriting a thriller by an anonymous author. When the book becomes an instant bestseller, he sets about tracking down the mysterious publishing house. As Mads begins to write the sequel, unanswerable questions lead him down a rabbit hole to the very heart of reality.

About the author 

Viggo Bjerring (b. 1981) made his debut in 2016 with the short story collection Balancekatten. Later that year he published the novella QWERTY, which was nominated for ‘Den svære Toer’ Prize by the Danish Literary Writers’ Association. At Its Heart is his first novel.