Rooted in the western United States in the decade post-9/11, theMystery.doc follows a young writer and his wife as he attempts to write his second book, a national epic he hopes will last forever, and as he searches for a form that will express the world as it has become, revealing the interconnectedness of all our lives.

Pop-up ads, internet search results, spam, lines of code, frames of film and television mix with canonical works of literature, alchemical manuscripts, transcripts of personal conversations, and the story of a man who wakes up one morning not knowing who he is, a blank document called themystery.doc newly appeared on his computer.

Part love story, part prose poem, part documentary, part existential whodunit, part future-fiction, part Bildungsroman, part memoir, theMystery.doc is about the quest to find something lasting in a world where everything is in danger of slipping away. Love, loss, birth, death, technology, terrorism and the American Dream come together to form a great symphonic work that dazzles in both its structure and in its deep emotional resonance.

About the Author
Matthew McIntosh is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller Well. He lives on the West Coast.

Reviews
At a time when most novels still resemble their Victorian forebears, it's refreshing to encounter a novel that actually looks like a 21st-century production . . . a remarkable achievement. * Washington Post *
Glued precariously together from the documentary fragments of a shattered culture and a fractured psyche, as with Eliot's Wasteland, Matthew McIntosh's huge and riveting theMystery.doc stakes out its territory in the unbroken ground of a new and unsettling American century. Haunted the same way that contemporary life is haunted - by snapshots and forgotten emails; scraps of dialogue and movie stills - this brave and massively accomplished book is both a savage exorcism and a dazzling celebration of the novel and the human heart, each with their endless possibilities. A transfixing statement in a shimmering new language. * Alan Moore *
theMystery.doc may seem capacious but is actually sly, shy, and precise, and Matthew McIntosh is ambitious in the good sense: he attempts something new, with new vitality, and at that, absolutely succeeds. * Rachel Kushner *
Sui generis genius. * Robert Olen Butler *



Book Information
ISBN 9781611856200
Author Matt McIntosh
Format Hardback
Page Count 1664
Imprint Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Publisher Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press
Weight(grams) 2050g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 160mm * 65mm