The Circle

The Circle is a 2013 dystopian novel by American author Dave Eggers. The novel chronicles the tech worker Mae Holland as she joins a powerful internet company, and its subject is what happens as the organisation's ambition and the individual's privacy come into conflict.

Mae begins in the company's customer experience department, having been recruited with help from her best friend and former roommate Annie, one of the forty most influential people at the firm. She climbs quickly, and the novel documents the amenities that make the campus attractive, including access to advanced technology, dormitory-style housing, gyms, recreation and parties. Her first day ends at a party where she meets Francis, who remains a presence in her life through the rest of the book.

The company is run by figures referred to as the Three Wise Men, and the plot's arc is the substitution of complete transparency for privacy, which the novel treats as an advancing threat rather than a settled condition. The novel keeps the benefits visible while the losses accumulate: the campus supplies housing, sport, food and company, and each new piece of openness is offered to Mae as an opportunity rather than as a demand.