A Guide For The Perplexed
Dara Horn
W. W. Norton & Company
<p><i>The incomparable&nbsp;<b>Dara Horn</b>&nbsp;returns with a spellbinding novel of how technology changes memory and how memory shapes the soul.</i></p><p>Software prodigy Josie Ashkenazi has invented an application that records everything its users do. When an Egyptian library invites her to visit as a consultant, her jealous sister Judith persuades her to go. But in Egypt’s post-revolutionary chaos, Josie is abducted — leaving Judith free to take over Josie’s life at home, including her husband and daughter, while Josie’s talent for preserving memories becomes a surprising test of her empathy and her only means of escape. An engrossing adventure that intertwines stories from Genesis, medieval philosophy, and the digital frontier,&nbsp;<b>A Guide for the Perplexed</b>&nbsp;is a novel of profound inner meaning and astonishing imagination.</p><p>"<i>This is extraordinary material, emotionally resonant and intellectually suggestive, and Horn’s portraits of the sisters are wonderfully ambiguous... Beautifully written and overwhelmingly sad, the final monologue by Josie’s daughter concludes a flawed novel whose ambitious failures are in every way more interesting than the perfections of a small, safe book.</i>"&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp;<b>Wendy Smith, The Washington Post</b></p>