Arcadia

Description

Set on the grounds of a decaying mansion in western New York State in the 1970s an American dream is taking shape FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF FATES AND FURIES In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land. Abe and Hannah's only child, Bit, is born into the commune soon after its creation. He grows up there, becoming deeply attached to Arcadia's way of life and everyone within it, in particular the beautiful but troubled Helle. While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. He needs to find a way to live in the world beyond Arcadia, but can he let go of the past to forge a new start?

Lauren Groff is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, The Monsters of Templeton, Arcadia, Fates and Furies and Matrix, and two short story collections, Delicate Edible Birds and Florida. She has won The Story Prize and been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work regularly appears in the New Yorker, the Atlantic and elsewhere, and she was named one of Granta's 2017 Best Young American Novelists.

Powerful and affecting...Captures a five-year-old's consciousness with rare, almost mystical intensity, this is a vivid, original and generous-hearted book. * Daily Mail * An exquisite tale of idealism and disintegration...Utterly absorbing. * Marie Claire * Richly peopled and ambitious and oh, so lovely, Lauren Groff's Arcadia is one of the most moving and satisfying novels I've read in a long time. It's not possible to write any better without showing off. -- Richard Russo The raw beauty of Ms. Groff's prose is one of the best things about Arcadia ... stunningly sensual and visceral in describing behaviour straight out of a time capsule... extraordinarily rich imagination, she writes about this life as if she has known it. * New York Times * Groff is a sensuous writer. * Guardian *