Connect

Description

Colt is a teenage boy, the only child of divorced parents, living in Nevada. For all his brilliance, he is impossible at school and is being home-schooled by his mother. At least in theory. His mother is a biologist, on the verge of a major scientific breakthrough; his father works for a mysterious government agency that isn't supposed to exist. Socially awkward and benignly neglected by his parents, Colt spends most of his time living in a virtual reality gaming world. Colt is on the spectrum, to say the least. Like most people who are borderline autistic, Colt tries to keep his life simple. But when Colt meets a girl online; when he submits his mother's breakthrough scientific paper to a conference and the paper comes to the attention of the organization his father works for; when his father comes to see his own son and ex-wife as threats to national security, things start to become complicated. Very complicated indeed . . .

Julian Gough is the author of three previous comic novels and was formerly the lead singer of the underground literary band Toasted Heretic. In 2007 Julian won the BBC National Short Story Award and was shortlisted for the Everyman Bollinger Wodehouse Prize in 2008 and 2012. In 2011 he wrote the ending to Minecraft: Time magazine's computer game of the year. Praise for Julian Gough: 'Julian Gough is a wonderful writer' Sebastian Barry 'An outstanding talent' Observer 'Intelligent . . . and thoroughly entertaining' New York Times (Juno & Juliet) 'Extremely original and surprising' Sunday Independent (Jude) 'Gough makes it look easy, with an instinctive sense of timing, and a razor sharp and subversive intellect' Sunday Tribune (Jude)

A dazzling technothriller . . . propulsive and engrossing * Guardian * Connect is so plugged into the technological zeitgeist . . . This is the world we know, several operating systems down the line . . . Instantly convincing . . . It will subtly change the way you see the world. * Sunday Times * I found Connect propulsively paced and ingeniously twisting. Gough has written a hyperactive, adrenaline-junkie dystopian thriller that deserves to be made into a belter of a film franchise. * The Times * This stimulating tale of a coder and his mum is a hyper-digital thriller . . . a story of family dysfunction plugged into larger questions about reality, evolution and the west's self-definition as "the good guys". * Observer * An exciting literary thriller with plenty of interesting ideas. * Mail on Sunday * Read Connect by the absurdly brilliant Julian Gough, a mind-expanding technothriller with a hotly beating human heart. -- Emma Donoghue Connect really is a work of genius. It confronts and explores the nature of humanness and existence in a thrilling, immersive, addictive way, and marks Julian out as a prophet among writers. -- Donal Ryan A wonderful novel, a tour de force. -- Joseph O'Connor This is a novel of enormous danger and risk . . . It is in the lightness of the writing, the compelling force of the narrative that the author achieves real brilliance. Gough has undoubtedly arrived, as a master storyteller. -- Michael Harding Connect has all the hallmarks of such futuristic classics as War Of The Worlds and Brave New World, but it is also a strong stand alone novel full of excitement, twists, and turns, and stands shoulder to shoulder with any thriller being published today. * Galway Advertiser * A mind-warping futuristic thriller wrapped in a smorgasbord of ideas . . . inventive and entertaining . . . Connect might just be the perfect combination of beach read and literary torchpaper. * Sunday Business Post (Ireland) *