Thrillers & Suspense
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Sleepwalk: A Novel
"[Chaon] does madcap well and likes his characters, even the killers ― especially the killers."
―The New York Times Book Review
An Indie Next pick for June 2022
Named a Best Book of Spring by Esquire
Named a Best Book of Summer by The Chicago Tribune
Named a Best Book of May by The Philadelphia Inquirer
A USA Today "Must Read"
Named one of the "27 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Winter" by Thrillist
A high speed and darkly comic road trip through a near future America with a big hearted mercenary, from beloved and acclaimed novelist Dan Chaon.
Sleepwalk's hero, Will Bear, is a man with so many aliases that he simply thinks of himself as the Barely Blur. At fifty years old, he's been living off the grid for over half his life. He's never had a real job, never paid taxes, never been in a committed relationship. A good-natured henchman with a complicated and lonely past and a passion for LSD microdosing, he spends his time hopscotching across state lines in his beloved camper van, running sometimes shady often dangerous errands for a powerful and ruthless operation he's never troubled himself to learn too much about. He has lots of connections, but no true ties. His longest relationships are with an old rescue dog that has post-traumatic stress and a childhood friend as deeply entrenched in the underworld as he is, who, lately, he's less and less sure he can trust.
Out of the blue, one of Will's many burner phones heralds a call from a twenty-year-old woman claiming to be his biological daughter. She says she's the product of one of his long-ago sperm donations; he's half certain she's AI. She needs his help. She's entrenched in a widespread and nefarious plot involving Will's employers, and for Will to continue to have any contact with her increasingly fuzzes the line between the people he is working for and the people he's running from.
With his signature blend of haunting emotional realism and fast-paced intrigue, Dan Chaon populates his fractured America with characters who ring all too true. Gazing both back to the past and forward to an inevitable-enough-seeming future, Sleepwalk examines where we've been and where we're going and the connections that bind us, no matter how far we travel to dodge them or how cleverly we hide.
―The New York Times Book Review
An Indie Next pick for June 2022
Named a Best Book of Spring by Esquire
Named a Best Book of Summer by The Chicago Tribune
Named a Best Book of May by The Philadelphia Inquirer
A USA Today "Must Read"
Named one of the "27 Books We Can't Wait to Read This Winter" by Thrillist
A high speed and darkly comic road trip through a near future America with a big hearted mercenary, from beloved and acclaimed novelist Dan Chaon.
Sleepwalk's hero, Will Bear, is a man with so many aliases that he simply thinks of himself as the Barely Blur. At fifty years old, he's been living off the grid for over half his life. He's never had a real job, never paid taxes, never been in a committed relationship. A good-natured henchman with a complicated and lonely past and a passion for LSD microdosing, he spends his time hopscotching across state lines in his beloved camper van, running sometimes shady often dangerous errands for a powerful and ruthless operation he's never troubled himself to learn too much about. He has lots of connections, but no true ties. His longest relationships are with an old rescue dog that has post-traumatic stress and a childhood friend as deeply entrenched in the underworld as he is, who, lately, he's less and less sure he can trust.
Out of the blue, one of Will's many burner phones heralds a call from a twenty-year-old woman claiming to be his biological daughter. She says she's the product of one of his long-ago sperm donations; he's half certain she's AI. She needs his help. She's entrenched in a widespread and nefarious plot involving Will's employers, and for Will to continue to have any contact with her increasingly fuzzes the line between the people he is working for and the people he's running from.
With his signature blend of haunting emotional realism and fast-paced intrigue, Dan Chaon populates his fractured America with characters who ring all too true. Gazing both back to the past and forward to an inevitable-enough-seeming future, Sleepwalk examines where we've been and where we're going and the connections that bind us, no matter how far we travel to dodge them or how cleverly we hide.
Editorial Reviews
"Chaon creates a daring irony in the disconnect between the road warrior's self-deceit and the reader's skepticism. The mystery, the moral audacity, the sense that anything is possible in these early pages refreshes not only the hit-man trope but also the world itself...What prevails above the plot is the voice, which is consistently winning and ― odd for so bloody a tale ― unfailingly warm. It's a comic departure from the straightforward darkness of recent Chaon...He does madcap well and likes his characters, even the killers ― especially the killers."
―Joshua Ferris, The New York Times Book Review
"Chaon, the visionary author of Await Your Reply and Among the Missing, returns with another standout literary thriller...Sleepwalk is Chaon at the height of his powers."
―Esquire
"Dan Chaon's latest novel has a plot with intrigue in spades as his latest protagonist abandons life off the grid for a high-octane, country-wide expedition."
―Thrillist
"In prize-worthy prose, Dan Chaon has fathered a protagonist worthy of respect, affection, and loyalty."
―Washington Independent Review of Books
"There's plenty of heart and humor in Chaon's slyly dystopian thriller."
―The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Dan Chaon's brash, exuberant new novel Sleepwalk [is] a Tarantino vibe in book form with nods to Pynchon-paranoia and Kerouac-style road epic, Greek myths and dystopian fiction. Sleepwalk draws on an array of genres and narratives, but it's also a visionary work, a preview of a nation just minutes away... Sleepwalk is no act of dull somnambulism but rather a vigorous, polished performance by a writer in command of his gifts."
―Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Thoroughly engaging, a rollicking trip from one misadventure to another, populated by an eccentric cast."
―New York Journal of Books
"[A] mind-bending experience...There are surprises on every page of Dan Chaon's terrific, darkly funny new novel."
―Akron Beaco...
―Joshua Ferris, The New York Times Book Review
"Chaon, the visionary author of Await Your Reply and Among the Missing, returns with another standout literary thriller...Sleepwalk is Chaon at the height of his powers."
―Esquire
"Dan Chaon's latest novel has a plot with intrigue in spades as his latest protagonist abandons life off the grid for a high-octane, country-wide expedition."
―Thrillist
"In prize-worthy prose, Dan Chaon has fathered a protagonist worthy of respect, affection, and loyalty."
―Washington Independent Review of Books
"There's plenty of heart and humor in Chaon's slyly dystopian thriller."
―The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Dan Chaon's brash, exuberant new novel Sleepwalk [is] a Tarantino vibe in book form with nods to Pynchon-paranoia and Kerouac-style road epic, Greek myths and dystopian fiction. Sleepwalk draws on an array of genres and narratives, but it's also a visionary work, a preview of a nation just minutes away... Sleepwalk is no act of dull somnambulism but rather a vigorous, polished performance by a writer in command of his gifts."
―Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Thoroughly engaging, a rollicking trip from one misadventure to another, populated by an eccentric cast."
―New York Journal of Books
"[A] mind-bending experience...There are surprises on every page of Dan Chaon's terrific, darkly funny new novel."
―Akron Beaco...
Readers Top Reviews
Lilibet Bombshell
Reminiscent of Hunter S. Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and Chuck Pahalniuk’s “Invisible Monsters”, this trippy, dreamy, and drug-fueled Great American Road Trip novel told from the point of view of a 50-year-old mercenary/illegal-errand-boy who’s working off what’s essentially his dead mother’s life debt for a shadowy underground organization in a future America when he finds out he quite possibly has a daughter borne of some “donations” he made on a whim to earn easy money when he was younger is an entertaining, thoughtful, and engaging read with a whole lot of vivid and mind-bending imagery and outright weird scenes that just keep you wondering what’s going to happen next as you keep turning pages. Like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”, it has that devil-may-care attitude toward the use of illicit substances while driving and interacting with the public, along with a warped sense of space and time and a tendency to just get lost: in your mind, in your head, and in the world at large. Like “Invisible Monsters”, there’s that POV of the main character telling us the story and telling us stories within the story. The unreliable narrator and characters who may not be who they seem to be. The large road trip, the casual attitude toward crime, and pills, pills, pills. The book definitely has a faster first half than second half, but I found that to be okay. A lot of stuff has to happen in the first half for the second half to even happen. The pacing slows down quite a bit until around the 70% mark, and then it picks up for a little bit until settling down into what will be the ending around the 80-85% mark or so. It’s a weird book, but an oddly touching book all the same. About the notion of family, about nature versus nurture, about the family you're born into and the family you choose, about fatherhood and trust issues. I’ve never read anything quite like it, with its quiet melancholy and we’re safe-for-now ending. But I enjoyed it.
Steven Ramirez
It’s true. Raymond Chandler and Kurt Vonnegut made a baby. And its name is Sleepwalk. From the first few pages, I was enthralled by author Dan Chaon’s ability to create an antihero of such depth—such longing—that I nearly forgot Will Bear is a sociopath. Yeah. Among his many side jobs, he kills people. As you wend your way through the backroads of a slightly futuristic America, you realize that the person Billy is was mainly due to his random, haphazard childhood. That and a sometime mom who herself had sociopathic tendencies. Like his mother, when the protagonist takes someone out, it’s not personal. Instead, it’s necessary. When Will learns that he might have a biological daughter, things get even more interesting as the revelation turns his world upside down. There were times when I pictured the character as Philip Marlowe chasing down clues. Other times, I recalled some of the funniest moments in novels, such as Player Piano and Cat’s Cradle. But hey, that’s me. Sleepwalk is a hard book to categorize. If I had to sum it up, I’d say it’s crime fiction with some laughs, mainly at Will’s expense. And like him, the other characters are as real as they get. Truthfully, though, The novel is not for everyone. Just saying. If you’re into authors who write to market, then this book may not seem like a slam dunk. But, on the other hand, if you give it a chance, I promise it will open your eyes to addictive storytelling that doesn’t play by the rules. If there was a way, I’d give this book six stars.
