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 the author of three New York Times bestselling novels - Fates and Furies (named by Barack Obama as his favourite book of 2015), The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia - as well as the story collection Delicate Edible Birds. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Groff's fiction has won the Pushcart Prize and the PEN/O. Henry Award, among others, and has been shortlisted for the Orange Award for New Writers and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2017, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists. Her stories have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, the Atlantic, One Story and Ploughshares, and in several of the annual The Best New American Stories anthologies. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and two sons.
Show moreFROM 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 the author of three New York Times bestselling novels - Fates and Furies (named by Barack Obama as his favourite book of 2015), The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia - as well as the story collection Delicate Edible Birds. She graduated from Amherst College and has an MFA in fiction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Groff's fiction has won the Pushcart Prize and the PEN/O. Henry Award, among others, and has been shortlisted for the Orange Award for New Writers and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. In 2017, she was named one of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists. Her stories have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, the Atlantic, One Story and Ploughshares, and in several of the annual The Best New American Stories anthologies. She lives in Gainesville, Florida, with her husband and two sons.
Show moreSet on the grounds of a decaying mansion in western New York State in the 1970s an American dream is taking shape
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.
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*
Intricately wrought ... A powerful paean to the human desire to
make the right sort of place to live.
*Sunday Telegraph*
Smart, beautiful, rooted in an earthy and glorious location ...
Groff’s beautifully written Arcadia paints a lyrical picture ...
You fall in love with Arcadia’s protagonist, Bit, and find yourself
transported to a different time, place and lifestyle.
*Stylist 5 stars*
Arcadia, her second novel, cements all of Groff’s promise, and then
some…Deft-structural and convincing authorial control…Wonderful
stuff.
*Mirror, Book of the Week*
With Arcadia, Groff has woven her own tale, in eloquent prose
that’s rich in sense of place and depth of feeling
*Independent on Sunday*
The novel’s greatest strength is its vision of the violent
fecundity of nature…Groff excels in writing with a kind of
fairy-tale lucidity…The book’s structure and imagery are full of
delightful intricacies and cruel ironies.
*Times Literary Supplement*
One of our most talented writers, and Arcadia one of the most
revelatory, magical and ambitious novels I've read in years.
Bit Stone was born in the early 1960s to a devoted couple living in a secluded hippie commune in western New York. He was a mostly happy boy, if quietly unnerved (his mother struggles with seasonal depression), who loves Arcadia and his parents and all the people there who lead hard, pure lives, living off the land. His parents, Hannah and Adam, are at the center of the loose Arcadia administration whose acknowledged leader, Handy, increasingly butts heads with Adam. It is no surprise that as the population of Arcadia grows and drugs become more prevalent, the community, set upon by political events that move the narrative into the near future, falls apart. Bit and the other core members go out into the real world with a wildly fluctuating level of success. -VERDICT Groff, author of 2008's magnificent The Monsters of Templeton, eschews counterculture stereotypes to bring Bit's interior and exterior worlds to life. Her exquisite writing makes the reader question whether to hurry up to read the next beautiful sentence or slow down and savor each passage. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 9/19/11.]-Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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.
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 *
Intricately wrought ... A powerful paean to the human desire to
make the right sort of place to live. * Sunday Telegraph *
Smart, beautiful, rooted in an earthy and glorious location ...
Groff's beautifully written Arcadia paints a lyrical picture
... You fall in love with Arcadia's protagonist, Bit, and
find yourself transported to a different time, place and
lifestyle. * Stylist 5 stars *
Arcadia, her second novel, cements all of Groff's promise, and
then some...Deft-structural and convincing authorial
control...Wonderful stuff. * Mirror, Book of the Week *
With Arcadia, Groff has woven her own tale, in eloquent prose
that's rich in sense of place and depth of feeling *
Independent on Sunday *
The novel's greatest strength is its vision of the violent
fecundity of nature...Groff excels in writing with a kind of
fairy-tale lucidity...The book's structure and imagery are
full of delightful intricacies and cruel ironies. * Times
Literary Supplement *
One of our most talented writers, and Arcadia one of the
most revelatory, magical and ambitious novels I've read in
years.
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