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Voice
304 pages
Product Description
<P><STRONG>From the bestselling author of <I>The Monsters of Templeton</I> comes a lyrical and gripping story of a great American dream.</STRONG></P> <P>In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding what would become a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. <I>Arcadia</I> follows this romantic, rollicking, and tragic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday and after. </P> <P>Arcadia's inhabitants include Handy, a musician and the group's charismatic leader; Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah's only child, the book's protagonist, Bit, who is born soon after the commune is created. </P> <P>While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. If he remains in love with the peaceful agrarian life in Arcadia and deeply attached to its residents--including Handy and Astrid's lithe and deeply troubled daughter, Helle--how can Bit become his own man? How will he make his way through life and the world outside of Arcadia where he must eventually live?</P> <P>With <I>Arcadia</I>, her first novel since her lauded debut, <I>The Monsters of Templeton</I>, Lauren Groff establishes herself not only as one of the most gifted young fiction writers at work today but also as one of our most accomplished literary artists.</P> <P><STRONG>Praise for <I>Arcadia</I>:<BR></STRONG><BR>"[Lauren Groff] has taken a quaint, easily caricatured community and given it true universality...And a book that might have been small, dated and insular winds up feeling timeless and vast...The raw beauty of Ms. Groff's prose is one of the best things about <I>Arcadia</I>. But it is by no means this book's only kind of splendor."<BR>--Janet Maslin, <I>The New York Times</I><BR><BR>"Groff's beautiful prose make this an unforgettable read."<BR>--<I>Publishers Weekly</I> (Starred Review)<BR><BR>"I was constantly torn between wanting to gulp down this book or savor its lines. Even the most incidental details vibrate with life... <I>Arcadia</I> wends a harrowing path back to a fragile, lovely place you can believe in." <BR>--Ron Charles, The <I>Washington Post</I><BR><BR>"****"<BR>--<I>People</I><BR><BR>"A moving look at the value of human connection in a scary, chaotic world."<BR>--<I>Entertainment Weekly </I><BR><BR>"Lauren Groff's dazzling new novel brings the flawed visions of a '60s commune to life... At a moment when so much floating anger struggles for articulation, it's Groff's essential human empathy that gives her work its urgency."<BR>--<I>Vogue</I><BR><BR>"One of our best young novelists brings a lost Eden of hippiedom freshly to life... Groff's prismatic prose style lends itself to the darker currents that run beneath the Arcadian dream... both poetic and ambitious."<BR>--<I>Elle</I> <BR><BR>"[A] beautifully crafted novel... [it] gives full rein to [Groff's] formidable descriptive powers, as she summons both the beauty of striving for perfection and the inevitable devastation of failing so miserably to achieve it."<BR>--STARRED <I>Booklist</I><BR><BR>"An astonishing novel, both in ambition and achievement."<BR>--STARRED <I>Kirkus Reviews</I><BR><BR>"Arcadia feels true, as do the characters who populate this extraordinary novel."<BR>--Hannah Tinti, author of <I>The Good Thief</I><BR><BR>"It's not possible to write any better without showing off."<BR>--Richard Russo, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel <I>Empire Falls</I><BR><BR>"Groff is one of our most talented writers, and <I>Arcadia</I> one of the most revelatory, magical, and ambitious novels I've read in years."<BR>--Kate Walbert, author of the <I>New York Times</I> bestselling novel <I>A Short History of Women</I></P>