Over the years, The Feed has passed through many drafts, sharpened by feedback from the people who read it, some numerous times. Thank you—this book would not exist without you. Over the years, I’ve gone through a few drafts too, shaped by feedback often from those same people. I wouldn’t exist without you, either.
Thank you Tara W., Julia C., Will W., and Jessie B. for advice.
Thank you Miles C. and Mary W. for the numerous reads and support. Thank you James W. for not pulling the punches. I’m sorry I hurt your brain. (And thank you, Kate W., for getting us relaxed again.) Thanks, Tom E., for the reads and the many conversations about many stories, not just The Feed. Looking forward to more.
Many thanks to Joanna B. and all at the Faber Academy, where pen was first put to paper, especially Soph T.T., Hugh C., and Ali MacD. Thank you Helen D. for the advice generally, but especially for your guidance when things were getting exciting. You are sorely missed. And thank you Chris McQ. for your kind phone advice, too.
Matt, Sean, and Fred, I think you would have enjoyed this book and I wish you were here to read it. Ditto my grandparents (with many thanks for influencing me and this novel in many ways).
Thank you Jen D., Kitty S., Emily G. (it was all too brief!), and everyone at Headline. Thank you David P., Priyanka K., and the William Morrow team. Sue H., Sara M., and Channing P.—who knows what the future will bring . . . and I’m looking forward to the adventure!
Juliet—it’s been a blast and boy am I looking forward to more. What a dream come true. Agent, editor, guard dog, friend, and precision-guided missile with notes. And there I was thinking I couldn’t do any more drafts! Thank you.
Steve and Mashton. Thanks for helping me get here. Let’s get the lunches back on.
Thank you to Mum and Dad for encouraging me to read in the first place. From that, everything comes. Mum, thank you for your experienced red pen on the many drafts of many novels you’ve read since. You’ve always been there for me, unquestioningly. Katie—thank you for all the support over all the years. Isla and Perry—I stole some dialogue from you. It was too good not to.
And Eleanor . . . how can words do it justice? Thank you. Not just for encouraging me to write again (but that belief was like lifeblood). Not just for reading this story many times. Thank you—so much—for everything. If there are parallel worlds, there will be somewhere we never managed to meet, and none of them are as good as this one.
—NCW, London (July 2017)
About the Author
NICK CLARK WINDO was a student in the Faber Academy “Writing a Novel” course. He studied English Literature at Cambridge and acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and he now works as a film producer and communications coach. Inspired by his realization that people are becoming increasingly disconnected from one another, as well as by philosophical questions about identity and memory, he wrote The Feed, his first thriller. He lives in London with his wife.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
the feed. Copyright © 2018 by Windlark Ltd. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
first edition
Cover design by Owen Corrigan
Cover art by James Kerr
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Digital Edition March 2018 ISBN 978-0-06-265188-4
Print ISBN 978-0-06-265185-3
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