Best-Selling Author's Rock 'n' Roll Novel Named Best Book of the Century
Jennifer Egan's A Visit From the Goon Squad is making a lot of noise on Spotify right now. Named the Best Book of the Century (So Far) by the platform's senior editor, the 2010 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel has been thrust back into the spotlight.
"Any list of my all-time favorite books would have to start with Jennifer Egan's A Visit from the Goon Squad," Spotify writes. "At first glance, it's the story of an aging punk rocker's descent into obscurity as he's battered by the inevitable passage of time - but the book's magic is in its reminder that our stories live on, in the fabric of memory, long after we're gone."
Told in a nonlinear format Egan says was inspired by Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, the novel unfolds over 13 stories, all centered on the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, his assistant with a troubled past. The stories are interlinked across timelines, with the setting stretching across the globe, from New York to Italy to Kenya.
Themes of time, aging, memory, self-destruction, and redemption are all explored with the turning of every pulsing page. Each chapter feels like a different track on a nonskip album, forming a story about how people change over time.
Though Egan wouldn't call herself a "music person," she turned to the industry's best while writing this book. Inspired by decades of rock, pop, and punk, the author crafted what NPR calls "an outstanding rock and roll novel, its interlocking tales share characters and a slowly coalescing narrative, bouncing off each other and merging like the tracks a DJ selects to make for a great night on the dance floor."
They add that Egan hooks the reader with engaging characters and experimental prose. "I'd nominate her for a Grammy if I could." If you'd like, you can check out the Spotify playlist for the book here.
NPR and Spotify aren't the only superfans of Egan's novel. A National Book Critics Circle Award winner, A Visit From the Goons was featured in The New York Times' Top 100 Books of the 21st Century, The Atlantic's Great American Novels, and was named Entertainment Weekly's Best Book of the Decade.
More than a decade after its release, the book continues to resonate. And guess what? We have a small-screen adaptation to look forward to. Per Deadline, Egan's novel has been optioned by A24 with Olivia Wilde attached to direct and executive produce. The project will event adapt Egan's 2022 follow-up, The Candy House. Rock and roll.
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 3:52 PM.