The Candy House

The Candy Houseopens 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 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, 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 othershas seduced multitudes.<br><br>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 stylesfrom omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets.<br><br>Intellectually dazzling,The Candy Houseis also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.<br><br>';A beautiful exploration of loss, memory, and history' (San Francisco Chronicle), ';this is minimalist maximalism. It's as if Egan compressed a big 19th-century novel onto a flash drive' (The New York Times).<br>