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 styles-from omniscient to first person plural to a duet of voices, an epistolary chapter, and a chapter of tweets.

In spellbinding linked 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. He’s forty, with four kids, and restless when he stumbles into a conversation with mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Staggeringly successful and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton is desperate for a new idea. Intellectually dazzling, The Candy House is also a moving testament to the tenacity and transcendence of human longing for connection, family, privacy, and love.From one of the most dazzling and iconic writers of our time 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-featuring characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad. 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. 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. 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 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.

The candy house characters list