Book Club: The Candy House

From one of the most dazzling and iconic contemporary writers and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity, privacy, and meaning in a world where our memories are no longer our own. 

Bix is forty, with four kids, restless, and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into an experiment: downloading or “externalising” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, 'Own Your Unconscious' —which allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others— has seduced multitudes. But not everyone. In spellbinding linked narratives, the author spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Egan is an American novelist, journalist and short-story writer. She's been awarded the 2018 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and is since 2018 the President of PEN America. Among her novels, A Visit from the Goon Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and The Invisible Circus became a feature film starring Cameron Diaz in 2001. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Harpers, Granta, McSweeney’s and other magazines. She is a recipient of prestigious fellowships. As a journalist, she has written frequently in the New York Times Magazine. Her 2002 cover story on homeless children received the Carroll Kowal Journalism Award, and 'The Bipolar Kid' received a 2009 NAMI Outstanding Media Award for Science and Health Reporting from the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

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