A dazzling modern fable of a woman who yearns to fly, from one of the most distinctive voices in modern British fiction - hailed in the Times Literary Supplement as 'Grittier than Carey and wittier than McEwan'.

Mick Rose runs a fast - and sometimes illegal - courier service to the genetics industry. Money is plentiful, and life with his young lover Isobel Avens is all he ever wanted. But Isobel is dissatisfied. Beautiful, she wants to be more beautiful; earthbound, she dreams of flying. And when she takes a new DNA-based genetic treatment, Mick finds out more than he wants to know about Isobel - and the goods his firm has been carrying all these years.

M. John Harrison has been hailed as one of Britain's most original novelists, viewing the modern world through sharp, unforgiving eyes. In Signs of Life he has created his most captivating novel yet, a dark, unsettling, heart-rending tale of a future that is nearly upon us and of dreams that will always be distant.