by Lauren Groff
First published 2012
Bit arrives as the first baby born into Arcadia, a commune that dozens of idealists establish in the forests of western New York during the late 1960s. The community builds their utopian experiment around a deteriorating mansion called Arcadia House, where members attempt to create a new way of living off the land. Bit watches the commune flourish during its peak years as families work together to sustain their alternative society. The community faces mounting challenges as internal conflicts emerge and the outside world intrudes on their isolated paradise. Resources become scarce and relationships fracture under the pressure of maintaining their idealistic vision. Bit must navigate his coming of age within a world that promised perfection but delivers the complexities of human nature. The novel traces the complete arc of the commune from its optimistic founding through its golden period and eventual transformation, all seen through the eyes of a child who knows no other reality until everything changes.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, coming-of-age, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Arcadia, New York
Period: 1960s
291 pages · Hardcover · Voice