Arcadia

By: Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam, Ruth Diver - translator

Narrated by: Sarah Mollo-Christensen

An English-language debut that reveals and subverts contemporary conceptions of normative sexuality, capitalist culture, and environmental degradation.

Farah moves into Liberty House - an arcadia, a community in harmony with nature - at the tender age of six, with her family. The commune's spiritual leader, Arcady, preaches equality, non-violence, anti-speciesism, free love, and uninhibited desire for all, regardless of gender, age, looks, or ability. At 15, Farah learns she is intersex, and begins to go beyond the confines of gender, as she explores the arc of her own desires. What, Farah asks, is a man or a woman? What does it mean to be part of a community? What is utopia when there are refugees nearby seeking shelter who cannot enter?

Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam delivers a magisterial novel, both a celebration and a critique of innocence in the contemporary world.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Emmanuelle Bayamack-Tam, English translation copyright 2021 by Ruth Diver (P)2021 Tantor

Interesting story, mediocre reader

Intriguing story of a free-love utopia that of course must fail, featuring an intersex trans hero. But the reader… bland as bland can be; not great at different voices. The story kept me going, despite the narrator.