A Visit from the Goon Squad

Bennie Salazar has gone from the Bay Area punk scene of the late 1970s to a career as a record producer in New York; Sasha, his assistant, is a compulsive thief who drifts through Manhattan clubs. The novel jumps back and forth in time, from their pasts to a near future in the 2020s, and gives each chapter to someone whose life touches theirs: Bennie's old bandmate Scotty, who has all but dropped out of society; Alex, who goes on a date with Sasha and later sees where the music business is heading; and Sasha's young daughter, who tells her part as a series of slides. Across the decades the characters wonder what became of their younger selves, as rebellion ages, habits harden into addictions and friendships shift.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Set in

United States, 1970s–2020s

First published

2010

Author's age

48 when first published

ISBN

9780307592835 (Knopf, United States)

9780307477477 (Vintage, United States)

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