Jennifer Egan, one of the most celebrated writers of our time, has written a “sibling novel” to A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD --- an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity and meaning in a world where memories and identities are no longer private.

Jennifer Egan, one of the most celebrated writers of our time, has written a “sibling novel” to A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD --- an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity and meaning in a world where memories and identities are no longer private.

From one of the most celebrated writers of our time, a literary figure with cult status, a “sibling novel” to her Pulitzer Prize --- and ​NBCC Award-winning A VISIT FROM THE GOON SQUAD --- an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity and meaning in a world where memories and identities are no longer private.

THE CANDY HOUSE opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is “one of those tech demi-gods with whom we’re all on a first name basis.” Bix is 40, with four kids, restless and desperate for a new idea when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. It’s 2010. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious” --- which 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 interlocking narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. Intellectually dazzling, THE CANDY HOUSE is also extraordinarily moving, a testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption. In the world of Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters” who track and exploit desires, and there are “eluders,” those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House. Egan introduces these characters in an astonishing array of narrative styles --- from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter and a chapter of tweets.

If GOON SQUAD was organized like a concept album, THE CANDY HOUSE incorporates Electronic Dance Music’s more disjunctive approach. The parts are titled: Build, Break, Drop. With an emphasis on gaming, portals and alternate worlds, its structure also suggests the experience of moving among dimensions in a role-playing game.

THE CANDY HOUSE is a bold, brilliant imagining of a world that is moments away. Egan takes to stunning new heights her “deeply intuitive forays into the darker aspects of our technology-driven, image-saturated culture” (Vogue). THE CANDY HOUSE delivers an absolutely extraordinary combination of fierce, exhilarating intelligence and heart.

With sharp insight into modern politics and family dynamics, taboos around mental illness, and our inescapable relationship to the past, FENCING WITH THE KING asks how we contend with inheritance: familial and cultural, hidden and openly contested.

With sharp insight into modern politics and family dynamics, taboos around mental illness, and our inescapable relationship to the past, FENCING WITH THE KING asks how we contend with inheritance: familial and cultural, hidden and openly contested.

A mesmerizing breakthrough novel of family myths and inheritances by the award-winning author of CRESCENT.

The King of Jordan is turning 60! How better to celebrate the occasion than with his favorite pastime --- fencing --- and with his favorite sparring partner, Gabriel Hamdan, who must be enticed back from America, where he lives with his wife and his daughter, Amani.

Amani, a divorced poet, jumps at the chance to accompany her father to his homeland for the King’s birthday. Her father’s past is a mystery to her --- even more so since she found a poem on blue airmail paper slipped into one of his old Arabic books, written by his mother, a Palestinian refugee who arrived in Jordan during World War I. Her words hint at a long-kept family secret, carefully guarded by Uncle Hafez, an advisor to the King, who has quite personal reasons for inviting his brother to the birthday party. In a sibling rivalry that carries ancient echoes, the Hamdan brothers must face a reckoning, with themselves and with each other --- one that almost costs Amani her life.

With sharp insight into modern politics and family dynamics, taboos around mental illness, and our inescapable relationship to the past, FENCING WITH THE KING asks how we contend with inheritance: familial and cultural, hidden and openly contested. Shot through with warmth and vitality, intelligence and spirit, it is absorbing and satisfying on every level, a wise and rare literary treat.