We Spread

珮妮是藝術家，在她自己的公寓被藝術品和創作環繞，幾十年過去，當她的伴侶去世，珮妮也感覺到自己的身體越來越不適合獨居。

一次換燈泡的摔倒意外後，醫院評估她應該要被送去養老院妥善照顧，接著，她就被送來這座位於森林中的安養中心‧六雪松。

當她提出抗議違反她的意志時，對方卻說她很久以前就答應晚年要來這邊度過，即便她一點印象也沒有。

當時間一天天過去，珮妮慢慢覺得在這邊的生活好像也不差，附近的景色靜謐優美，有另外其他三個長者與她作伴聊天、玩玩牌和遊戲，內心也不再孤單。

但珮妮一直覺得這所養護中心的管理者雪莉十分詭異，她堅稱自己有醫學背景，能讓長者獲得更好的照顧，但整間安養中心只有4位長者。
且珮妮發現，他們開始有了各自奇怪的變化，希爾伯特的皮膚看起來不太好，而茹絲則偏執地重複觀看電影《末路狂花》。

安養中心到底背後到底在做什麼？雪莉又隱瞞了什麼黑暗的計畫？

以暢銷作《我想結束這一切》打開知名度的作家Iain Reid帶來一部以老年人為主角的驚悚科幻片，不僅劇情駭人、氣氛緊張恐怖，也討論老年人應該要被視為完全體、有尊嚴地對待，而不是殘缺的、脆弱的、等待死亡的生物。

The author of the "evocative, spine-tingling, and razor-sharp" (Bustle) I'm Thinking of Ending Things that inspired the Netflix original movie and the "short, shocking" (The Guardian) Foe returns with a new work of suspense following an elderly woman trapped in a mysterious facility.

Penny, an artist, has lived in the same apartment for decades, surrounded by the artifacts and keepsakes of her long life. She is resigned to the mundane rituals of old age, until things start to slip. Before her longtime partner passed away years earlier, provisions were made, unbeknownst to her, for a room in a unique long-term care residence, where Penny finds herself after one too many “incidents”.

Initially, surrounded by peers, conversing, eating, sleeping, looking out at the beautiful woods that surround the house, all is well. She even begins to paint again. But as the days start to blur together, Penny—with a growing sense of unrest and distrust—starts to lose her grip on the passage of time and on her place in the world. Is she succumbing to the subtly destructive effects of aging, or is she an unknowing participant in something more unsettling?

At once compassionate and uncanny, told in spare, hypnotic prose, Iain Reid’s genre-defying third novel explores questions of conformity, art, productivity, relationships, and what, ultimately, it means to grow old.