Arcadia by Lauren Groff

A Multi-Decade Utopian Novel of 1970s Commune Idealism, New York City, and Isolation

Born in a bus on a counterculture commune in western New York during the late 1960s, Ridley "Bit" Stone grows up inside Arcadia House, an intentional community founded by idealists seeking self-sufficiency, communal living, and pacifism. As the commune expands, food shortages, disease, and autocratic leadership force the community to collapse.

Exiled into the outside world, Bit builds a life as a photography professor and single father in New York City. Spanning four distinct time periods from 1968 to a near-future pandemic in 2018, the narrative follows Bit as he returns to the overgrown grounds of his childhood home.

Why You’ll Love This Book

Lauren Groff delivers a luminous, multi-generational novel examining American counterculture and communal ideals. A great fit for readers of Station Eleven, Barbara Kingsolver, and Emma Cline.