“The Answers is in part a sparkling satire of our era of big data, sending up the all-too-believable idea that, by optimizing human emotions, technology can be put to use ‘solving love.’ But the novel is also a poignant spiritual lament, deepening the themes of Ms. Lacey’s excellent debut, Nobody Is Ever Missing … The specter of holiness haunts Ms. Lacey’s book like a phantom limb. ‘I came close to praying a few times,’ Mary says during a period of acute suffering, ‘but everything felt unanswered enough and I didn’t want another frame for the silence.’ These searching, religious dimensions add to the fresh commentary on present-day godheads to make The Answers not just one of the most ingenious novels of 2017 but also one of the most moving.”
–Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2017
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