From the Publisher
The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways-and
with unexpected consequences-in acclaimed author Dan Chaon's
gripping, brilliantly written new novel.
Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can't
stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been
missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully,
moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to
hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely
normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.
A few days after graduating from high school, Lucy Lattimore sneaks
away from the small town of Pompey, Ohio, with her charismatic
former history teacher. They arrive in Nebraska, in the middle of
nowhere, at a long-deserted motel next to a dried-up reservoir, to
figure out the next move on their path to a new life. But soon Lucy
begins to feel quietly uneasy.
My whole life is a lie, thinks Ryan Schuyler, who has recently
learned some shocking news. In response, he walks off the
Northwestern University campus, hops on a bus, and breaks loose
from his existence, which suddenly seems abstract and tenuous.
Presumed dead, Ryan decides to remake himself-through
unconventional and precarious means.
Await Your Reply is a literary masterwork with the
momentum of a thriller, an unforgettable novel in which pasts are
invented and reinvented and the future is both seductively
uncharted and perilously unmoored.
From the Jacket
"The brilliant Dan Chaon has done it again. Both a genre-bending
whodunit and a profound meditation on identity, Await Your
Reply left me breathless with admiration. The pages turn
themselves."-Justin Cronin, author of The Summer
Guest
"I've been waiting for somebody to write the essential
identity-theft novel, and I'm very glad Dan Chaon's the one to have
done it, because he believes in real story and is faithful to the
reader."-Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections
"This is a stunning and beautiful book. I must have read its final
pages half a dozen times, just letting what lay packed and coiled
within them settle into me. Out of pure loss, Chaon has created
real magnificence. Await Your Reply attains a kind
of blurry, bloodstained perfection."-Peter Straub, author of A
Dark Matter
"I haven't had as much sheer fun reading a novel in years.
Chaon's characters are always so beautifully drawn that they hold
your attention even when they're just sitting and thinking.
In this breathtaking book, they do that and a whole lot more."-Ann
Packer, author of The Dive from Clausen's Pier
"Stunning…. Mr. Chaon succeeds in both creating suspense and
making it pay off, but 'Await Your Reply' also does something even
better. Like the finest of his storytelling heroes, Mr. Chaon
manages to bridge the gap between literary and pulp fiction with a
clever, insinuating book equally satisfying to fans of either
genre. He does travel two roads, even though that guy David Frost
said it wasn't possible."-New York Times
"I was completely hooked-a credit both to Chaon's intricate and
suspenseful plotting and to some of the most paranoid material to
hit American literature since Don Delillo's White
Noise...Await Your Reply is a dark,
provocative book; in bringing its three strands together, Chaon has
fashioned a braid out of barbed wire."-New York Times Book
Review
"(4 stars) A deliciously disturbing literary thriller. In the end,
Await Your Reply is a story that unfolds
with chilling precision. You'll be spellbound from start to
finish."-People
"A tender, melancholy meditation on attachment and loss."- O,
The Oprah Magazine
"Far more than an absorbing mystery, in this complex and
psychologically astute story Dan Chaon put on a virtuosic display
of his literary talent. It's a thrilling example of the best of
contemporary literary fiction." -Bookpage
"Chaon deftly intertwines a trio of story lines, showcasing his
characters' individuality by threading subtle connections between
and among them with effortless finesse, all the while invoking the
complexities of what's real and what's fake with mesmerizing
brilliance. This novel's structure echoes that of his
well-received debut-also a book of threes-even as it bests that
book's elegant prose, haunting plot and knockout literary
excellence."-Publishers Weekly, starred review
"So breathtaking… that the reader practically feels compelled to
start the novel anew, just to discover the cues that he's missed
along the way."-Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Dan Chaon is the acclaimed author of Among the
Missing, which was a finalist for the National Book Award,
and You Remind Me of Me, which was named one of
the best books of the year by The Washington Post, Chicago
Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, The Christian Science
Monitor, and Entertainment Weekly, among other
publications. Chaon's fiction has appeared in many journals and
anthologies, including The Best American Short Stories,
Pushcart Prize, and The O. Henry Prize
Stories. He has been a finalist for the National Magazine
Award in Fiction, and he was the recipient of the 2006 Academy
Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Chaon lives in Cleveland, Ohio, and teaches at Oberlin College,
where he is the Pauline M. Delaney Professor of Creative Writing.
