“Moon Beaver” begins with Benny Henderson, an inhabitant of the increasingly drab Norwich, who finds himself struggling to retain his sense of originality in a city that has been permeated by Company rhetoric; it is being blanketed by propaganda that forces the relinquishment of an individual identity in order to create manageable conformity. As the city slowly grows greyer and falls deeper into an abyss of Company compliance, a young woman of unspecified age and origin, who calls herself Moon Beaver, unexpectedly enters Benny’s flat while he is in the middle of a bubble bath and entrances him with her “cult of one.” From thence on, he unquestioningly allows the strange woman to invade his life, deplete his savings, and guide him away from his fiancée, Louise, as they venture overseas. Enthralled by her spontaneous lifestyle and her belief in her own immortality, Benny attempts to learn from her the mysteries of time, which she purports to manipulate. It is clear to Benny that he will eventually be abandoned by Moon, and thus feels as if every day with her could be the last. The occult of Moon Beaver pervades and complicates the lives of every character: Louise attempts to come to terms with Moon’s sense of freedom, and ultimately her own, as she delves into Moon’s indeterminate past; Lou, a Midwestern hen farmer from the States, tries to reconcile his love for his hens with his love for Moon; and Benny, attempting to understand Moon’s philosophy, concentrates on negotiating issues of time and sustainability outside of the Company norm. Andrew Hook’s “Moon Beaver” is a novel of life, death, and the transitory time spent in between. Moon’s character and sense of self is eerily inspiring and makes for a read that is both absorbing and beguiling. The issues raised by Hook are poignant to everyday life, and the consequences of living in every kind of way are potentially haunting: how do we immortalize our finite selves, and how do we do so without sacrificing the people we love?