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Book Summary and Reviews of The Every by Dave Eggers

The Every by Dave Eggers

The Every

A novel

by Dave Eggers

  • Critics' Consensus (0):
  • Published:
  • Nov 2021, 608 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Circle comes an exciting new follow-up. When the world's largest search engine/social media company, the Circle, merges with the planet's dominant ecommerce site, it creates the richest and most dangerous - and, oddly enough, most beloved - monopoly ever known: the Every.

Delaney Wells is an unlikely new hire at the Every. A former forest ranger and unwavering tech skeptic, she charms her way into an entry-level job with one goal in mind: to take down the company from within. With her compatriot, the not-at-all-ambitious Wes Makazian, they look for the Every's weaknesses, hoping to free humanity from all-encompassing surveillance and the emoji-driven infantilization of the species. But does anyone want what Delaney is fighting to save? Does humanity truly want to be free?

Studded with unforgettable characters, outrageous outfits, and lacerating set-pieces, this companion to The Circle blends absurdity and terror, satire and suspense, while keeping the reader in apprehensive excitement about the fate of the company—and the human animal.

Paperback original. The Every is available in hardcover through McSweeney's and independent bookstores only. See The Guardian for full story.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Daringly explodes cherished assumptions...A riveting, astute, darkly hilarious, and deeply unnerving speculative saga." - Booklist (starred review)

"Eggers's uneven follow-up to The Circle, which revolved around a futuristic social network, sparkles with provocative ideas but has trouble keeping itself together...This'll be a bit too wooly for many readers' tastes, but there's plenty of sharp apocalyptic satire." - Publishers Weekly

"The novel follows two employees of The Every who try to dismantle the company from the inside. In order to do some of his own dismantling, Eggers has MacGyvered a unique distribution strategy so that pub-date hardcover copies of his book will be exclusively available through independent booksellers." - The Millions

"Eggers takes his probing social criticism-via-the-novel approach to the all pervasive world of social media, as we follow the deeply tech-averse Delaney Wells' attempt to take down the eponymous surveillance corporation from within. Extra plaudits to Eggers for making the difficult IRL decision to not sell his new book in hardcover on Amazon (it will be available only at independent bookstores)." - Lit Hub

"The Every follows through not only on the world Dave Eggers created in The Circle, but on the absurd and alarming world we've created for ourselves. With oracular precision, he takes us on a journey equal parts terrifying and human and hilarious. This is Eggers at the top of his game." - Rebecca Makkai, Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Great Believers

"Hilarious and horrifying and idealistic. An unusual combination in a novel, or in anything else, really, but here the necessary result of a powerful writer taking on much of what matters most to our future." - Mohsin Hamid, author of Exit West

This information about The Every was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Dave Eggers Author Biography

Photo: © Michelle Quint

Dave Eggers is the author of The Circle, The Monk of Mokha, A Hologram for the King, What Is the What, and The Museum of Rain, among other books. He is the cofounder of 826 National, a network of youth writing centers, and Art + Water, a nonprofit visual art hub on San Francisco's waterfront. A classically trained artist and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Eggers has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and is the recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the American Book Award. In 2024, The Eyes and the Impossible was awarded the Newbery Medal.

Link to Dave Eggers's Website

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