Lexicon - Hardcover

Advance Praise for Lexicon "I don't know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It's the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise."
--Austin Grossman, author of Soon I Will be Invincible "About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. Lexicon reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on Snow Crash."
--Lev Grossman, New York Times bestselling author of The Magicians and The Magician King "Lexicon grabbed me with the opening lines, and never let go. An absolutely thrilling story, featuring an array of compelling characters in an eerily credible parallel society, punctuated by bouts of laugh-out-loud humor."
--Chris Pavone, New York Times bestselling author of The Expats

Advance Praise for "Lexicon"

"About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. "Lexicon "reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on Snow Crash."
--Lev Grossman, "New York Times "bestselling author of "The Magicians "and "The Magician King "

""Lexicon" grabbed me with the opening lines, and never let go. An absolutely thrilling story, featuring an array of compelling characters in an eerily credible parallel society, punctuated by bouts of laugh-out-loud humor."
--Chris Pavone, "New York Times "bestselling author of "The Expats"

"Dazzling and spectacularly inventive. A novel that jams itself sideways into your brain and stays there."
--Mike Carey, author of "The Devil You Know"

"I don't know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It's the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise."
--Austin Grossman, author of "Soon I Will be Invincible "

Advance Praise for "Lexicon"

"An up-all-night thriller for freaks and geeks who want to see their wizards all grown up in the real world and armed to the teeth in a bloody story."
"--Kirkus"

"About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. "Lexicon "reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on Snow Crash."
--Lev Grossman, "New York Times "bestselling author of "The Magicians "and "The Magician King "

""Lexicon" grabbed me with the opening lines, and never let go. An absolutely thrilling story, featuring an array of compelling characters in an eerily credible parallel society, punctuated by bouts of laugh-out-loud humor."
--Chris Pavone, "New York Times "bestselling author of "The Expats"

"Dazzling and spectacularly inventive. A novel that jams itself sideways into your brain and stays there."
--Mike Carey, author of "The Devil You Know"

"I don't know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It's the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise."
--Austin Grossman, author of "Soon I Will be Invincible "
"An absolutely first-rate, suspenseful thriller with convincing characters who invite readers' empathy and keep them turning pages until the satisfying conclusion."
"--Booklist"(starred)

"An up-all-night thriller for freaks and geeks who want to see their wizards all grown up in the real world and armed to the teeth in a bloody story."
"--Kirkus"

"[An] ambitious satirical thriller... amuses as much as it shocks."
"--Publishers Weekly"

"About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. "Lexicon" reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on "Snow Crash"."
--Lev Grossman, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Magicians" and "The Magician King"

""Lexicon" grabbed me with the opening lines, and never let go. An absolutely thrilling story, featuring an array of compelling characters in an eerily credible parallel society, punctuated by bouts of laugh-out-loud humor."
--Chris Pavone, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Expats"

"Dazzling and spectacularly inventive. A novel that jams itself sideways into your brain and stays there."
--Mike Carey, author of "The Devil You Know"

"I don't know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It's the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise."
--Austin Grossman, author of "Soon I Will be Invincible"

"Insanely good. Dark and twisted and sweet and humane all at once."
--Lauren Beukes, author of "Zoo City" and "The Shining Girls"
"About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. "Lexicon" reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on "Snow Crash"."
--Lev Grossman, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Magicians" and "The Magician King"

""Lexicon" grabbed me with the opening lines, and never let go. An absolutely thrilling story, featuring an array of compelling characters in an eerily credible parallel society, punctuated by bouts of laugh-out-loud humor."
--Chris Pavone, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Expats"

"Dazzling and spectacularly inventive. A novel that jams itself sideways into your brain and stays there."
--Mike Carey, author of "The Devil You Know"

"I don't know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It's the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise."
--Austin Grossman, author of "Soon I Will be Invincible"

"Insanely good. Dark and twisted and sweet and humane all at once."
--Lauren Beukes, author of "Zoo City" and "The Shining Girls"

"Best thing I've read in a long, long time."
--Hugh Howey, " New York Times" bestselling author of "Wool"

"An absolutely first-rate, suspenseful thriller with convincing characters who invite readers' empathy and keep them turning pages until the satisfying conclusion."
"--Booklist"(starred)

"A scary and satisfying blend of thriller, dystopia, and horror."
--"Library Journal"

"An up-all-night thriller for freaks and geeks who want to see their wizards all grown up in the real world and armed to the teeth in a bloody story."
"--Kirkus"

"[An] ambitious satirical thriller... amuses as much as it shocks."
"--Publishers Weekly"
"Imagine, if you will, a secret group of people called Poets who have the power to control others simply by speaking to them. Barry has, and the result is an extraordinarily fast, funny, cerebral thriller."
--"Time Magazine"
"[A] speedy, clever, dialogue-rich thriller."
--Salon
"About as close you can get to the perfect cerebral thriller: searingly smart, ridiculously funny, and fast as hell. "Lexicon" reads like Elmore Leonard high out of his mind on "Snow Crash.""
--Lev Grossman, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Magicians" and "The Magician King"
""Lexicon" grabbed me with the opening lines, and never let go. An absolutely thrilling story, featuring an array of compelling characters in an eerily credible parallel society, punctuated by bouts of laugh-out-loud humor."
--Chris Pavone, "New York Times" bestselling author of "The Expats"
"Dazzling and spectacularly inventive. A novel that jams itself sideways into your brain and stays there."
--Mike Carey, author of "The Devil You Know"
"I don't know how you could craft a better weekend read than this novel of international intrigue and weaponized Chomskian linguistics. It's the perfect mix of philosophical play and shotgun-inflected chase scenes. Like someone let Grant Morrison loose on the Bourne identity franchise."
--Austin Grossman, author of "Soon I Will be Invincible"
"Insanely good. Dark and twisted and sweet and humane all at once."
--Lauren Beukes, author of "Zoo City" and "The Shining Girls"
"Best thing I've read in a long, long time."
--Hugh Howey, " New York Times" bestselling author of "Wool"
"An absolutely first-rate, suspenseful thriller with convincing characters who invite readers' empathy and keep them turning pages until the satisfying conclusion."
"--Booklist"(starred)
"A scary and satisfying blend of thriller, dystopia, and horror."
--"Library Journal"
"An up-all-nigh

"A dark, dystopic grabber in which words are treated as weapons, and the villainous types have literary figures' names. Plath, Yeats, Eliot and Woolf all figure in this ambitious, linguistics-minded work of futurism."
--Janet Maslin, "New York"" Times"
"Imagine, if you will, a secret group of people called Poets who have the power to control others simply by speaking to them. Barry has, and the result is an extraordinarily fast, funny, cerebral thriller."
--"Time Magazine"
"An extremely slick and readable thriller."
"--Washington Post "
"Barry has a gift for spinning complicated plots that aren't weighed down by their intricacies. His prose here is dark and incisive, and he creates sympathetic (and often quite funny) characters. There's nothing inherently scary about words, and yet the author acknowledges that they have the capacity to throw entire societies into chaos, Tower of Babel-style. In Barry's world, evil dwells in the everyday ways the public is manipulated by language--through politicized media, push polling and targeted advertising--and words become as frightening and lethal as a looming pandemic. All this makes "Lexicon" more sophisticated and laden with subtext than your average genre thriller, and clearly reaffirms Barry's status as a gifted purveyor of suspense."
"--Time Out New York"
""Lexicon" is a strange combination of romance, thriller and science fiction. Imagine blending the works of Neal Stephenson with Michael Chabon and the end result would come close to the world envisioned by Barry. The words brilliant and exemplary aren't adequate enough to convey the amazing craft of "Lexicon.""--Associated Press
"A clever blend of sci-fi and thriller, with touches of romance and humor... persuaded me anew that words are, indeed, the bomb."
"--Dallas Morning News"
"It's a pitch-perfect thriller, a jetpack of a plot that rocketed me from page one to page 400 in a single afternoon, and it ke

Recruited into an exclusive government school where students are taught the science of coercion to support a secretive organization of "poet" world manipulators, orphaned street hustler Emily Ruff becomes the school's most talented prodigy before catastrophically falling in love, while a seemingly innocent young man is rendered a pawn in a dangerous power struggle. (science fiction). Simultaneous.