Am I a person or a weapon?" Borne asks Rachel, in extremis. "Yes, you are a person," Rachel tells him. "But like a person, you can be a weapon, too." In Borne , the epic new novel from Jeff VanderMeer, author of the acclaimed, bestselling Southern Reach Trilogy, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined, dangerous city of the near future. The city is littered with discarded experiments from the Company--a biotech firm now seemingly derelict--and punished by the unpredictable attacks of a giant bear. From one of her scavenging missions, Rachel brings home Borne, who is little more than a green lump--plant or animal?--but exudes a strange charisma. Rachel feels a growing attachment to Borne, a protectiveness that she can ill afford. It's exactly the kind of vulnerability that will upend her precarious existence, unnerving her partner, Wick, and upsetting the delicate balance of their unforgiving city--possibly forever. And yet, little as she understands what or who Borne may be, she cannot give him up, even as Borne grows and changes . . . "He was born , but I had borne him .