The Candy House [Audiobook]

Description

* Named a Top Ten Best Book of 2022 by The New York Times Book Review, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Slate * Named a Best Book of 2022 by The New Yorker, NPR, Oprah Daily, Time, Harpers Bazaar, Entertainment Weekly, Esquire, Vogue, and many more! * A compelling read that showcases Egans masterful storytelling. --Time Dazzling. --Vogue Radiant, exhilarating. --Slate Mesmerizing...A thought-provoking examination of how and why we change. --People From one of the most celebrated writers of our time comes an inventive, effervescent (Oprah Daily) novel about the memory and quest for authenticity and human connection. 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 were all on a first name basis. Bix is forty, 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. Within a decade, Bixs new technology, Own Your Unconscious--which allows you access to every memory youve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others--has seduced multitudes. In the world of Egans 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. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love. A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history (San Francisco Chronicle), this is minimalist maximalism. Its as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive (The New York Times).