Who are you really? Is your identity static or can you slide in and out different personas like a snake shedding skin? If you can, do you lose any sense of who you really are? And ultimately, what are the consequences of all this reinventing of identity?

In age where our personas, who we project ourselves to be on social networks and blogs, don’t always match the truth, Await Your Reply cuts straight to the bone (as you’ll see by the opening chapter), getting underneath our collective skins. Like a puzzle box that you slowly unravel, the novel digs deep into those questions. I don’t loosely throw out the term ‘Hitchcockian’ as it carries great expectations, but the book is just that. As I read Dan Chaon’s novel, I kept thinking to myself, “This is Vertigo.” Imagine Hitchcock’s Vertigo expanded out to include three lost souls all wrapped up in separate intrigues that ultimately involve shedding their personas. That’s not to say that Chaon is ripping off Alfred, he’s just taking a cue from the master and crafting his own wonderful web of lies, deceit, trickery, violence, and murder. From the first chapter you’re hooked and can’t wait to dig deeper.
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