Arcadia - Softcover

"Part Stone Diaries, part Lord of the Flies, part something out of a Shakespearean tragedy, Lauren Groff's Arcadia is so uniquely absorbing that you finish it as if waking from a dream. Groff is one of our most talented writers, and Arcadia one of the most revelatory, magical, and ambitious novels I've read in years." "Kate Walbert, author of the New York Times bestselling novel A Short History of Women""

"Lauren Groff's honed prose dazzles. With Arcadia, Groff has crafted a fresh novel out of an old literary theme - you can't go home again - by focusing on a protagonist who never stops trying to do so." "Dallas Morning News""

"****" "People""

"Lauren Groff's second novel, "Arcadia," is so tenderly moving it actually swells the heart." "New York Daily News""

""Arcadia "builds its power in a subtle cumulative way. Somehow the author manages an epic sweep with her narrative, yet one that also feels intimate and concentrated [Groff] offers an ending that's both tragic and hopeful..." "Newsday""

"[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 "Arcadia." But it is by no means this book's only kind of splendor." Janet Maslin, The New York Times"

"Lauren Groff's first book was a wonder and a delight What a happy relief to discover Groff's second novel is even better [than The Monsters of Templeton]. Not every young writer lives up to the promise of a first book, but Groff has exceeded expectations. Riveting." Miami Herald"

"[A] beautifully crafted novel Groff's second novel, after the well-received The Monsters of Templeton (2008), gives full rein to her formidable descriptive powers, as she summons both the beauty of striving for perfection and the inevitable devastation of failing so miserably to achieve it." Booklist (Starred Review)"

"Groff's beautiful prose make this an unforgettable read." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)"

"I was constantly torn between wanting to gulp down this book or savor its lines. Even the most incidental details vibrate with life. . . . Groff's miracle is to record the death of the fantasy but then show how the residue of affection can persist and, given the right soil, sprout again. Arcadia wends a harrowing path back to a fragile, lovely place you can believe in." Ron Charles, The Washington Post"

In a lush, haunting story of the American dream, Bit, born in a back-to-nature commune in 1970s New York State, must come to grips with the outside world when the commune eventually fails. By the best-selling author of The Monsters of Templeton.