Chaon was born June 11, 1964, in either Sidney, Nebraska or Omaha, Nebraska, and was the adopted son of Earl D. Chaon and Teresa N. (Tallmage) Chaon. His father was a construction worker and his mother a stay-at-home mom, neither of whom graduated from high school. He was the oldest of three siblings. He grew up in a village of 20 people outside of Sidney, Nebraska.
Books in order of publication:
Novels
You Remind Me of Me (2004)
Await Your Reply (2009)
Ill Will (2017)
Sleepwalk (2022)
Short story collections
Fitting Ends and Other Stories (TriQuarterly/Northwestern U. Press, 1995), reprinted 2003 by Ballantine Books, with two additional stories, as Fitting Ends
Among the Missing (2001)
Stay Awake (2012)
Oak Lawn Library Friends 