Fast, thrilling, compulsively addictive - The Circle is Dave Eggers's timely novel about our obsession with the internet, now available as a Penguin Essential for the first time.When Mae is hired to work for the Circle, the world's most powerful internet company, she feels she's been given the opportunity of a lifetime. Run out of a sprawling California campus, the Circle links users' personal emails, social media, and finances with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of transparency. Mae can't believe her great fortune to work for them - even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public ...'Tremendous., Inventive, big hearted and very funny. Prepare to be addicted' Daily Mail'Prescient, important and enjoyable . ., . a deft modern synthesis of Swiftian wit with Orwellian prognostication' Guardian'A gripping and highly unsettling read' Sunday Times