The Candy House

'A complex, compelling read that showcases Egan's masterful storytelling' TimeIt'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, Egan delivers a fierce and exhilarating tale of connection, love, family, privacy and redemption.'A dazzling feat of literary construction' Vogue'A clever, endlessly inventive exploration of our increasingly connected, surveilled society and the individual yearning for privacy and meaning' Guardian