This novel is about three sets of characters who couldn’t settle for having just one life and who leave their former selves like some forgotten cities. They are all on the move to start anew, traveling in search of their true lives as if by re-inventing themselves they could discover their real identity.

Ryan Schuyler, a runaway who finds it easier to fake his own death than face his adopted mother when he flunks college, moves into a cabin with his uncle Jay (his real father), a man who runs a stolen identity scheme and re-creates his own character like an avatar in a virtual game.

Lucy Lattimore, a high school graduate from Pompei, Ohio, whose parents died in a car crash, runs away with her history teacher, George Orson to the Lighthouse Motel near a dried-up reservoir in Nebraska.

And Miles Cheshire travels to the town of Inuvik, in Northwest Canada, searching for his schizophrenic twin brother Hayden, "the only person in the world who could remember how happy they were at one point."

The sense of foreboding in this dark, mysterious, beautifully-told story will tantalize you to read late into the night to find out what happens to those who "felt like strangers in their own families." Dan Chaon reads like a Brothers Grimm Tale. Dear reader, be aware not to trust the breadcrumbs he leaves for you on the path! Chaon’s first short story collection Among the Missing was a finalist for the 2001 National Book Award.

Await Your Reply (Hardcover)

By Dan Chaon

$25.00

ISBN-13: 9780345476029
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Ballantine Books, 08/01/2009

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