The Marriage Act

A Novel

By: John Marrs

Narrated by: John Marrs, Clare Corbett, Nathalie Buscombe, David Monteith, Dugald Bruce-Lockhart, Joshua Riley

What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey? Black Mirror meets thriller with a dash of Naomi Alderman’s The Power in this dark, high-concept novel by the bestselling author of The One, now available as an expanded edition.

Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills—the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.

But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives—monitoring every word, every minor disagreement…and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.

“The king of near-future what-ifs is back with a smart and chilling page-turner. Twisty, unsettling, scarily believable and thought provoking, this is his best yet.” —Ellery Lloyd, author of The Club

“Clever, compelling and terrifyingly plausible. A near future nightmare that grips from the first page and never lets go. THE MARRIAGE ACT is a brilliant examination of relationships and the power we let others have over us. And talk about a page-turner. This one will leave you with paper cuts!” —C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man

Don't miss other suspenseful reads from John Marrs (you'll never see the twists coming!):

• The Marriage Act
• The Vacation
• The Family Experiment
• The One

John Marrs is brilliant.

I've listen to a string of mediocre audible books lately. I moved into this one forgetting how incredible John Marrs is. I LOVE his integration of his former stories and the evolution of our current technology. Both felt purposeful and creates this rich history/ current state of his fictional world. The character development was excellent and the weaving of stories throughout masterful. The execution of his dystopian ideas- from systemic challeneges down to smallest details were so thoroughly described they felt imminent in our real world. Having this many narrators can be a challenge to listen to, but in this case, each narrator nailed it. I devoured this book. Incredibly well done all around. Sad it ended!

Loved it!

I loved the development of the characters in this story. The story was absolutely believable for a future of the government being in charge of our love lives. It was a very unnerving twist on politics today. I definitely recommend.

One of the most enjoyable books I’ve listened to

I am thrilled I accidentally found a new author to fall in love with even if I’ve lost sleep listening I’m still thrilled. The characters are so well developed and jumping from one to the next really worked for me. The way the underlying personalities were developed, good or bad, caused me to think I like you, well maybe I don’t, to how sad for you. This book also frightened me and made me realize how much has changed in my 82 years. Thank you Mr Marrs. I highly recommend this author.

Powerful!

Loved this book and the concept, another homerun from John Marrs! Can’t wait to read his next book!

Just… wow

This book is not only amazing like all of the authors work, but too real this time. I had to remind myself several times this was dystopian future Britain, not current day Canada 😬 esp with the euthanasia program. Scary would we live in. Incredible book too close to the real world for comfort.