Dave Eggers is perfecting the art of sneaking onto bookshelves. His new novel, “The Circle,†will be published in October, according to the Web site of his publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Like his last book, “A Hologram for the King,†which was published less than a month after its existence was announced, “The Circle†will appear without much lead time.
According to Knopf’s site, the novel’s protagonist is a woman named Mae Holland who is hired to work for the Circle, “the world’s most powerful Internet company.†The organization, “run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal e-mails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity.â€
As you might guess from that setup, Mae doesn’t live happily ever after. Things go wrong, and the book becomes a “novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.â€
