The Candy House (novel)

This novel is a sequel to Egan's 2010 novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad. Many of the characters from A Visit from the Goon Squad return with an update to their stories, including having had children.[1][3][5]

• "The Affinity Charm" – Bix, CEO of the social media company Mandala, is longing for a new tech innovation. He overhears that experiments are being done to externalize the memories of animals, which sparks an idea.
• "Case Study: No One Got Hurt" – Alfred is obsessed with authenticity. He performs outlandish acts to elicit genuine reactions from strangers, causing strife with his family.
• "A Journey: A Stranger Comes to Town" – Miles considers his life to be a failure, and Drew struggles with guilt over Rob's death. Their lives change when they meet.
• "Rhyme Scheme" – Lincoln works for Mandala as a "counter", someone who analyzes data from users to predict their behavior. He tries to figure out how to get coworker M to fall in love with him.
• "The Mystery of Our Mother" – Melora recounts the family history of her anthropologist mother and absent father Lou.
• "What the Forest Remembers" – Charlene uses Mandala to explore the memories of her father Lou on his trip in the 1960s.
• "Bright Day" – Roxy, a recovering heroin addict, uploads her memories to Mandala and is ready to start a new life.
• "'i,' the Protagonist" – Chris works complacently for a company that "algebraizes" stories to basic tropes. On a frustrating trip with a coworker, he finds new direction in life.
• "The Perimeter: After" – Molly, a teenager, experience tensions with her friends when new girl Lulu arrives.
• "Lulu the Spy, 2032" – Lulu works as a spy for the Citizen Agent program.
• "The Perimeter: Before" – Hannah, Molly's sister, recounts her mother's feud with their neighbor Jules.
• "See Below" – A series of intersecting email threads between the large cast of the novel's characters.
• "Eureka Gold" – Gregory, the son of Bix, mourns the death of his father.
• "Middle Son (Area of Detail)" – Ames strikes a surprise home-run in a baseball game. The story quickly recounts events of his future, then returns to the triumphant moment of his home-run.

Dwight Garner of The New York Times writes

Egan has a zonking sense of control; she knows where she’s going and the polyphonic effects she wants to achieve, and she achieves them, as if she were writing on a type of MacBook that won’t exist for another decade. “The Candy House” and “Goon Squad” are touchstone New York City and technology...novels of our time; they’ll be printed in one volume someday, I suspect, by the Library of America.[1]

Kirkus Reviews says

As she did in Goon Squad’s PowerPoint chapter, Egan doles out information in small bites that accumulate to demonstrate the novel’s time-honored strengths: richly complicated characters and compelling narratives...[and the novel is a] thrilling, endlessly stimulating work that demands to be read and reread.[5]

The novel has been longlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.[6] Publishers Weekly named it one of the top ten works of fiction published in 2022.[7] It was also selected for The New York Times's "10 Best Books of 2022" list.[8]

• Official website
• Author website
• Book Marks. Collected reviews for "The Candy House." March 30, 2022
• Jennifer Egan introduces her new novel, The Candy House. Video. YouTube. March 30,2022.