The Circle

· Penguin UK
3.9
179 reviews
eBook
512
Pages
Eligible

About this eBook


NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE starring Tom Hanks, Emma Watson and John Boyega


THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - a dark, thrilling and unputdownable novel about our obsession with the internet

'Prepare to be addicted' Daily Mail

'A gripping and highly unsettling read' Sunday Times

'The Circle is 'Brave New World' for our brave new world... Fast, witty and troubling' Washington Post


When Mae is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Run out of a sprawling California campus, the Circle links users' personal emails, social media, and finances with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of transparency. Mae can't believe her great fortune to work for them - even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public ...

'An elegantly told, compulsively readable parable for the 21st Century' Vanity Fair

'Immensely readable and very timely' Metro

'Prescient, important and enjoyable . . . a deft modern synthesis of Swiftian wit with Orwellian prognostication' Guardian

Ratings and reviews

3.9
179 reviews
Nicole Williams
24 April 2017
The concept of the story line is intriguing, but the execution falls short. The book needed so much more detail and development. Why did Eggers cut so many corners? Painting some scenes with such detail, that eventually had no significance to the plot - or the connection was lazily made. Partitioning the book into I, II, III wasn't necessary. What was needed was more chapters and more depth. There are many more stories out there about the utopian/dystopian world of social connection that is more thrilling. Wait for the movie and hope it's better.
2 people found this review helpful
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Ajay Menon
9 May 2017
To say The Circle is the 1984 of the current age might be a bit of a stretch. But it does come awfully close to it. With some premises that might seem awfully outrageous, only to be vindicated when seen under the lens of the current times. With Facebook and Google devouring greater control over the lives of people in an attempt to stage the grand unnification, people would be merely pawns in this game. The characters in The circle might seem too unidimensional...but read as a grim warning it barely matters.
4 people found this review helpful
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K Owusu
23 February 2016
Great story, with great ideas about the conflict between privacy and the social media world. An important message was told and picture was painted. However, at times it seemed to drag a bit and I found myself skipping over sections I thought to be quite irrelevant to the main story. Although, it sounds childish, the lack of chapters was a bit more frustrating than I thought it would be, and made it seem to drag a bit more. Overall, important read, but could have been executed better.
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About the author

Dave Eggers is the author of twelve books, including The Monk of Mokha; The Circle; Heroes of the Frontier; A Hologram for the King, a finalist for the National Book Award; and What Is the What, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of France's Prix Médicis Etranger.

He is the founder of McSweeney's and the cofounder of 826 Valencia, a youth writing center that has inspired similar programs around the world, and of ScholarMatch, which connects donors with students to make college accessible. He is the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and is the cofounder of Voice of Witness, a book series that illuminates human rights crises through oral history.

He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letter. His work has been translated into forty- two languages.

www.Internationalcongressofyouthvoices.org
www.826valencia.org
www.scholarmatch.org
www.voiceofwitness.org
www.valentinoachakdeng.org
www.mcsweeneys.net
www.daveeggers.net

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