Arcadia

Arcadia

Summary

'Stunningly sensual and visceral' NEW YORK TIMES
'Smart, beautiful . . . paints a lyrical picture' STYLIST
'Groff is a sensuous writer'
GUARDIAN

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 its way of life and everyone within it, in particular the beautiful but troubled Helle. While the commune rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. But when it's time to find a way to live in the world beyond Arcadia, will he be able to let go of the past to forge a new start?

'An exquisite tale of idealism and disintegration . . . Utterly absorbing' MARIE CLAIRE
'Intricately wrought . . . A powerful pean to the human desire to make the right sort of place live' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'Arcadia is stunningly sensual and visceral in describing behaviour straight out of a time capsule . . . A shimmering evocation of the commune's heyday'
NEW YORK TIMES

Reviews

  • 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

About the author

Lauren Groff

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.
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