2021 Wodehouse Prize (nominee)
A wry, provocative and very funny debut novel about identity, authenticity and the self in the age of the internet
Suddenly left with no reason to stay in New York – or be anywhere in particular – she flees to Berlin, and embarks on her own cycles of manipulation in the deceptive spaces of her daily life, from dating apps to expat social events, open-plan offices to bureaucratic waiting rooms.
Narrated in a voice as seductive as it is subtly subversive, Fake Accounts is a wry, provocative and very funny debut novel about identity and authenticity in the age of the internet.
Genre: Literary Fiction
‘I loved it’ Zadie Smith
‘Brilliant, very funny’ Guardian
‘Prepare to feel very seen’ I-D
‘Compulsively readable’ Irish Times
On the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, a young woman snoops through her boyfriend’s phone and makes a startling discovery: he’s an anonymous Internet conspiracy theorist, and a popular one at that. Already fluent in Internet fakery, irony, and outrage, she’s not exactly shocked by the revelation. But this is only the first in a series of bizarre twists that expose a world whose truths are shaped by online lies.Suddenly left with no reason to stay in New York – or be anywhere in particular – she flees to Berlin, and embarks on her own cycles of manipulation in the deceptive spaces of her daily life, from dating apps to expat social events, open-plan offices to bureaucratic waiting rooms.
Narrated in a voice as seductive as it is subtly subversive, Fake Accounts is a wry, provocative and very funny debut novel about identity and authenticity in the age of the internet.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Fake Accounts percolates the big moral questions of our age––fraudulence, identity as performance, surveillance capitalism, political instability, personal freedom–– through a narrative arc driven ingeniously by low-level dopamine hits. At the same time, it is very, very funny. Oyler is the kind of dangerous contemporary writer we need more of." - Niamh Campbell
"Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts is such an ensorcelling blend of insight, comedy and suspense, you almost don’t notice yourself being filleted alive in these pages. A note to fellow readers of the twenty-first century: Anyone familiar with the allure of social media will adore this coolly observed novel. A note to fellow writers of the twenty-first century: Oh crap, she did it." - Sloane Crosley
"Somehow Lauren Oyler hacked my brain preferences and wrote the novel I’ve been waiting years to read. To spend time in the pages of this stealthily radical book is to submit to Oyler’s dopamine experiment of 'social media realism'—a genre I believe she has pioneered—and to cycle endlessly from obsession to logic to paranoia to grandiosity to salvation to idolatry to distrust. This novel is, above all, a gripping blast to read, and so, so effortlessly smart." - Heidi Julavits
"Fake Accounts is an absorbing and shameless examination of the way self-mythologies are forged and performed in the public privacy of the internet. Fans of Lauren Oyler's divisive, ferocious criticism will love this 21st century comedy of bad manners." - Catherine Lacey
"This novel made me want to retire from contemporary reality. I loved it." - Zadie Smith
"Lauren Oyler’s Fake Accounts is such an ensorcelling blend of insight, comedy and suspense, you almost don’t notice yourself being filleted alive in these pages. A note to fellow readers of the twenty-first century: Anyone familiar with the allure of social media will adore this coolly observed novel. A note to fellow writers of the twenty-first century: Oh crap, she did it." - Sloane Crosley
"Somehow Lauren Oyler hacked my brain preferences and wrote the novel I’ve been waiting years to read. To spend time in the pages of this stealthily radical book is to submit to Oyler’s dopamine experiment of 'social media realism'—a genre I believe she has pioneered—and to cycle endlessly from obsession to logic to paranoia to grandiosity to salvation to idolatry to distrust. This novel is, above all, a gripping blast to read, and so, so effortlessly smart." - Heidi Julavits
"Fake Accounts is an absorbing and shameless examination of the way self-mythologies are forged and performed in the public privacy of the internet. Fans of Lauren Oyler's divisive, ferocious criticism will love this 21st century comedy of bad manners." - Catherine Lacey
"This novel made me want to retire from contemporary reality. I loved it." - Zadie Smith
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