Episode 82: Celebrated American writer Jennifer Egan on her exciting new novel, “The Candy House”

Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer Jennifer Egan’s cracking new novel The Candy House is a “sibling” to her 2010 international bestseller, A Visit to The Goon Squad, featuring some of the same characters as well as that novel’s “affinity for technology, humour and structural freedom”. In the brave new world of Egan’s compelling novel tech entrepreneur Bix Boulton has invented “Own Your Unconsciousness”, which enables users to download every thought and feeling they’ve ever had to an external device. For an additional cost, they can make their consciousness available to all – and thus gain access to everyone else’s thoughts and memories as well. It is an ingenious plot device which enables Egan to explore issues around privacy, memory and technology. But as Egan explains, it is not really a novel about technology at all – it is all about the fragile connections between human beings, especially those who are related to each other. A rich discussion about the joys and complexities of family ties – and a celebration of fiction , in all its varied forms.

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