The Familiar, Volume 2

Into the Forest

Part of The Familiar

$11.99 US
Knopf | Pantheon
On sale Oct 27, 2015 | 9780375714979
Sales rights: World

NATIONAL BEST SELLER  

From the author of the international best seller House of Leaves and National Book Award–nominated Only Revolutions comes a monumental new novel as dazzling as it is riveting. The Familiar (Volume 1) ranges from Mexico to Southeast Asia, from Venice, Italy, to Venice, California, with nine lives hanging in the balance, each called upon to make a terrifying choice. They include a therapist-in-training grappling with daughters as demanding as her patients; an ambitious East L.A. gang member contracted for violence; two scientists in Marfa, Texas, on the run from an organization powerful beyond imagining; plus a recovering addict in Singapore summoned at midnight by a desperate billionaire; and a programmer near Silicon Beach whose game engine might unleash consequences far exceeding the entertainment he intends. At the very heart, though, is a twelve-year-old girl named Xanther who one rainy day in May sets out with her father to get a dog, only to end up trying to save a creature as fragile as it is dangerous . . . which will change not only her life and the lives of those she has yet to encounter, but this world, too—or at least the world we think we know and the future we take for granted.

(With full-color illustrations throughout.) 

Like the print edition, this eBook contains a complex image-based layout. It is most readable on e-reading devices with larger screen sizes.  

PRAISE FOR THE FAMILIAR, VOLUME 2:

“Now we have Volume 2 (Chapter 2, really) and it is somehow, remarkably, amazingly, almost impossibly better. . . . I have never worried so much for a character as I did for [Xanther] in the final pages and, honest to God, I'm not even entirely sure what happened. Or to whom. Or how. But maybe Volume 3 will make it clear. Only six more months to wait. That ought to be just about enough time to recover, I figure, before The Familiar crawls into my lap and blows my mind all over again.” —Jason Sheehan, NPR Books

“The series at times recalls UlyssesInfinite Jest, and Cloud Atlas in its complexity, structure, and echoing parallel narratives . . . The literary world is stronger for having boundary pushers like Danielewski.” —Ryan Vlastelica, The A.V. Club
 
Volume 2 reads like a graphic novel with very few pictures, though the images are critical. The wide array of plotlines create disparate parts that are slowly converging, encoded as a codex, the decoding of which—what we loosely call reading—renders an open-ended experience. Highly recommended for the intrepid reader.” —Library Journal (starred review)
 
“Readers with an interest in the latest in literary experimentalism will thrill at Danielewski’s approach.”  —Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI:

“One of the most gifted and versatile writers of our time.” —Steven Moore, The Washington Post

“His use of evocative typography—words that visually reinforce their meaning on the page—leaves readers dazzled.” —Kim O’Connor, Slate

“You hold on for dear life by your fingertips, but the exertion is worth it when you finally get to the top and see the panorama of Danielewski’s literary universe.” —Dylan Foley, Chicago Tribune

About

NATIONAL BEST SELLER  

From the author of the international best seller House of Leaves and National Book Award–nominated Only Revolutions comes a monumental new novel as dazzling as it is riveting. The Familiar (Volume 1) ranges from Mexico to Southeast Asia, from Venice, Italy, to Venice, California, with nine lives hanging in the balance, each called upon to make a terrifying choice. They include a therapist-in-training grappling with daughters as demanding as her patients; an ambitious East L.A. gang member contracted for violence; two scientists in Marfa, Texas, on the run from an organization powerful beyond imagining; plus a recovering addict in Singapore summoned at midnight by a desperate billionaire; and a programmer near Silicon Beach whose game engine might unleash consequences far exceeding the entertainment he intends. At the very heart, though, is a twelve-year-old girl named Xanther who one rainy day in May sets out with her father to get a dog, only to end up trying to save a creature as fragile as it is dangerous . . . which will change not only her life and the lives of those she has yet to encounter, but this world, too—or at least the world we think we know and the future we take for granted.

(With full-color illustrations throughout.) 

Like the print edition, this eBook contains a complex image-based layout. It is most readable on e-reading devices with larger screen sizes.  

Praise

PRAISE FOR THE FAMILIAR, VOLUME 2:

“Now we have Volume 2 (Chapter 2, really) and it is somehow, remarkably, amazingly, almost impossibly better. . . . I have never worried so much for a character as I did for [Xanther] in the final pages and, honest to God, I'm not even entirely sure what happened. Or to whom. Or how. But maybe Volume 3 will make it clear. Only six more months to wait. That ought to be just about enough time to recover, I figure, before The Familiar crawls into my lap and blows my mind all over again.” —Jason Sheehan, NPR Books

“The series at times recalls UlyssesInfinite Jest, and Cloud Atlas in its complexity, structure, and echoing parallel narratives . . . The literary world is stronger for having boundary pushers like Danielewski.” —Ryan Vlastelica, The A.V. Club
 
Volume 2 reads like a graphic novel with very few pictures, though the images are critical. The wide array of plotlines create disparate parts that are slowly converging, encoded as a codex, the decoding of which—what we loosely call reading—renders an open-ended experience. Highly recommended for the intrepid reader.” —Library Journal (starred review)
 
“Readers with an interest in the latest in literary experimentalism will thrill at Danielewski’s approach.”  —Kirkus Reviews

PRAISE FOR MARK Z. DANIELEWSKI:

“One of the most gifted and versatile writers of our time.” —Steven Moore, The Washington Post

“His use of evocative typography—words that visually reinforce their meaning on the page—leaves readers dazzled.” —Kim O’Connor, Slate

“You hold on for dear life by your fingertips, but the exertion is worth it when you finally get to the top and see the panorama of Danielewski’s literary universe.” —Dylan Foley, Chicago Tribune