It sounds like a plot from Black Mirror. A seemingly innocent worldwide craze for “kentukis” – controllable cuddly toys fitted with cameras that share their content online with a paired stranger – turns into something much more terrifying.
But in Argentinian author Samanta Schweblin’s novel, recently longlisted for the International Booker Prize, there is little room for satire. Instead, Little Eyes is an often horrific vision of how the urge to connect online will play out.
Perhaps some Black Mirror-style levity would have been useful, though, because the tone is largely grim. Schweblin has interesting ideas about the ways in which we have let our guard down with technology in order to feel connected. But these ideas never quite cohere into a satisfying narrative. Little Eyes operates as a kind of collection of loosely linked vignettes as people around the world invite these movable toys into their homes, only to realise that they can be anything but harmless fun.
“Little eyes” is the best