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Arcadia

by Lauren Groff

Narrator Andrew Garman

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Length 11 hours 8 minutes

Language English

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Bookseller recommendation

“Arcadia, a beautiful and raw novel, is centered around a boy named Bit, nicknamed for his small size. Groff splits the book into two halves. In the first half, we watch Bit grow up in a utopian and wooded commune in the early ’70s. In the second half, Bit is an adult, a father raising his own child in New York City. I am unsure how to describe the scope of this novel—the way Groff’s language brings us into Bit’s world, the intimacy, the wonder, the confusion, the worry and the hope he holds as a child, and then the struggle, shattering grief, and quiet, determined bravery he develops as a man.”
— SMC • Bookshop Santa Cruz

Summary

A staggering portrait of a crumbling utopia, this “timeless and vast” novel filled with the “raw beauty” beautifully depicts an idyllic commune in New York State—and charts its eventual yet inevitable downfall (Janet Maslin, The New York Times).

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“Timeless and vast … The raw beauty of Ms. Groff’s prose is one of the best things about Arcadia. But it is by no means this book’s only kind of splendor.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“Even the most incidental details vibrate with life Arcadia wends a harrowing path back to a fragile, lovely place you can believe in.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

In the fields of western New York State in the 1970s, a few dozen idealists set out to live off the land, founding a commune centered on the grounds of a decaying mansion called Arcadia House. Arcadia follows this romantic utopian dream from its hopeful start through its heyday. Arcadia’s inhabitants include Handy, the charismatic leader; his wife, Astrid, a midwife; Abe, a master carpenter; Hannah, a baker and historian; and Abe and Hannah’s only child, Bit. While Arcadia rises and falls, Bit, too, ages and changes. He falls in love with Helle, Handy’s lovely, troubled daughter. And eventually he must face the world beyond Arcadia.

In Arcadia, Groff displays her literary gifts to stunning effect.

Fiction Fiction - Literary