Description: Praise for The Word Exchange : "Great ...Set in the near future, the novel is a sobering look at how dependent we are on technology and how susceptible we are to the distortions of language." -- The Washington Post "A wildly ambitious, darkly intellectual and inventive thriller about the intersection of language, technology and meaning ... Language becomes a virus in this terrifying vision of ... print-empty, Web-reliant culture. Students of linguistics may run screaming from this dystopian nightmare by Brooklyn-based debut novelist Graedon, but diligent fans of Neal Stephenson or Max Barry will be richly rewarded by a complex thriller. In fact, the novel is as much about lexicography, communication and philosophy as it is about secret societies, conspiracies and dangerous technologies." --Kirkus, starred review "Graedon''s spectacular, ambitious debut explores a near-future America that''s shifted almost exclusively to smart technologies, where print is only a nostalgia, and nostalgia is only an archaism ... With secret societies, conspiracies, and mega-corp Synchronic''s menacing technologies, Graedon deploys all the hallmarks of a futuristic thriller, but avoids derivative doomsday sci-fi shtick. Instead, her novel is rife with literary allusions and philosophical wormholes that aren''t only decorative but integral to characters'' abilities and limitations in communicating, and it succeeds precisely because it''s as full of humanity as it is of mystery and intellectual prowess." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "[ The Word Exchange is] a bibliothriller of epidemic proportions ... [A] remarkable first novel, combining a vividly imagined future with the fondly remembered past to offer a chilling prediction of where our unthinking reliance on technology is leading us. And, as you''d expect, Graedon''s word choice is exquisite." -- Booklist, starred review "[A] propulsive, twisty future-noir ...[Graedon''s] vision of the future is less alarmist than alarmingly within reach. Her attention to language--and the breakdown of language--invites comparisons to writers like Anthony Burgess and Lewis Carroll. Anana is an Alice figure, and the New York City she lives in a grim, Web 4.0 wonderland." -- The Daily Beast "Sharp ... [D]azzling ... [ The Word Exchange ] offers a snappy, noir-inflected vision of a future New York suffering from an epidemic of aphasiabrought on by super- smartphones ...Graedon''s language is sparklingly inventive...[and] so enjoyable...Graedon is too good a writer, it seems, to let an opportunity for linguistic play slip ... Despite all of its considerable linguistic sophistication, the novel offers a blunt message: Words are good. Reading is good. Books are good." --Slate.com "[A] literary thriller . . . . An ambitious debut, The Word Exchange is a cautionary tale with sophistication. . . . Unsurprisingly, Graedon''s own language is essential to the success of The Word Exchange --it''s erudite, ruminative, and complex." --Meredith Turits, Bustle.com, April Editor''s Pick, April 21, 2014 --Bustle.com "Alena Graedon''s spectacular debut is a story for our age of ''accelerated obsolescence.'' A genuinely scaryand funny mystery about linguistic slippage and disturbance, it''s also a moving meditation on our sometimes comic, sometimes desperate struggles to speak, and to listen, and to mean something to one another. To borrow Graedon''s own invention, The Word Exchange is ''Synchronic'' -- a gorgeous genre mashup that offers readers the pleasures of noir, science fiction, romance and philosophy. It''s an unforgettable joyride across the thin ice of language." --Karen Russell,author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove "Imaginative, layered, and highly original, The Word Exchange is an engagingly creepy story of technology gone wrong and a clever meditation on the enduring mysteries of language and love." --Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Age of Miracles "Wow! This highly addictive future noir is also terrifyingly prescient. Set in a parallel New York filled with language viruses, pneumatic tubes, and heartbreak, Alena Graedon''s book is luminous and haunting at every turn. I will never look at words in quite the same way--and neither will you." --Reif Larsen,author of The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

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