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. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also extraordinarily moving, a testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for real connection, love, family, privacy and redemption.

In spellbinding interlocking narratives, Egan spins out the consequences of Own Your Unconscious through the lives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades. 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. 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 we're all on a first name basis.' Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, 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. Book Synopsis Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Year by Time, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Oprah Daily, Glamour, USA Today, Parade, Bustle, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, The Boston Globe, Tampa Bay Times, BuzzFeed, Vulture and many more ! From one of the most celebrated writers of our time, a literary figure with cult status, a 'sibling novel' to her Pulitzer Prize- and NBCC Award-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad-an electrifying, deeply moving novel about the quest for authenticity and meaning in a world where memories and identities are no longer private.

The candy house book review