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The Candy House by Jennifer Egan

12.50

PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING AUTHOR OF A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD
A Time Magazine Must-Read
‘A complex, compelling read that showcases Egan’s masterful storytelling’ TIME
‘A dazzling feat of literary construction’ VOGUE

From one of the most dazzling and iconic writers of our time comes an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity, privacy, and meaning in a world where our memories are no longer our own–featuring characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad.

It’s 2010. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. He’s forty, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalising” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, Own Your Unconscious–that allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share every memory in exchange for access to the memories of others–has seduced multitudes. But not everyone.

In spellbinding linked narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Intellectually dazzling and extraordinarily moving, The Candy House is a bold, brilliant imagining of a world that is moments away. With a focus on social media, gaming, and alternate worlds, you can almost experience moving among dimensions in a role-playing game. Egan takes her “deeply intuitive forays into the darker aspects of our technology-driven, image-saturated culture” (Vogue) to stunning new heights and delivers a fierce and exhilarating testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption.

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SKU: 9781472150943 Category: Tag:
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'A complex, compelling read that showcases Egan's masterful storytelling'
Time

'Fans of A Visit from the Goon Squad will not want to miss this new novel'
jNews

'A thrilling, endlessly stimulating work that demands to be read and reread'
Kirkus Reviews

'Egan returns to the fertile territory and characters of A Visit from the Goon Squad with an electrifying and shape-shifting story that one-ups its Pulitzer-winning predecessor'
Publisher’s Weekly

'A forceful, wonderfully fragmented novel of a terrifyingly possible future, as intellectually rigorous as it is formally impressive, and yet another monumental work from Egan'
Library Journal

'Playfully twists various narratives into a series of compelling interconnected vignettes, featuring many of the same characters from her award-laden 2010 novel. Ever the consummate storyteller and with a deft and powerful sense of characterisation, Egan is sure to have struck gold once more'
Harper’s Bazaar

'A fast-paced polyvoiced romp through America in the grip of a sinister tech that allows others into your mind. EEK! Includes a dazzling novella Egan wrote'
Margaret Atwood, via Twitter

'Egan is skilful, even masterful, at writing in a variety of styles and formats to suit each character's voice, making the book that much more real and that much more affecting'
Bloomburg Businessweek

Impressive
A Life in Books

A dazzling feat of literary construction that belies the profound questions at its core: Does technology aid our sense of narrative or obscure it?
Vogue

You don't have to read A Visit From the Goon Squad to love this sibling novel to Egan's stellar hit…complex and intimate
Good Housekeeping

Inventive, effervescent…Egan plaits multiple narratives and techniques to underscore the manifold ways our own desires betray us in a brave new coded world
Oprah Daily

Very funny, penetrating, and impactful
Glamour

Tech guru Bix Bouton creates 'Own Your Unconscious,' a technology that allows users to access and share every memory they've ever had. It's a concept so killer, it's hard to believe such technology doesn't already exist
USA Today

[The Candy House] does what only the best and rarest books can: peel back the thin membrane of ordinary life, and find transcendence on the other side
Entertainment Weekly

Haunting and often hilarious…a wondrous, riotously inventive work of speculative fiction
Booklist, STARRED review

'Humming with a sustained brio, The Candy House is especially rewarding on a micro level. Even post-BLM, Egan felt free to write from the perspective of a black character, as she should feel free, and she's apt to get away with it, too. The chapter narrated by an autistic character is convincing. Egan is particularly good at evoking the insecure teenage girl. The writing is stylish: “a man of so few words that the occasional word he did utter had the cleaving finality of an ax splitting a log”. The novel is spirited, playful, sometimes incisive. So who cares if I can't remember anyone's name'
Financial Times

'Intellectually dazzling and extraordinarily moving . . . Egan's writing – as always – is flawless, offering plenty to think about'
The Book-It-List

A staggering story in concept and thrilling in delivery
Sainsbury’s Magazine

A Time Magazine Must-Read

It may be the smartest novel you've read all year
LOVEBYLIFE

Mind-bogglingly clever
The Telegraph

Weight 0.28 kg
Dimensions 196 × 124 × 34 cm