Iain Pears: Arcadia (USA 2017)

From the Publisher:
From the author of the international bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Arcadia is an astonishing work of imagination.

In Cold War England, Professor Henry Lytten, having renounced a career in espionage, is writing a fantasy novel that dares to imagine a world less fraught than his own. He finds an unlikely confidante in Rosie, an inquisitive young neighbor who, while chasing after Lytten's cat one day, stumbles through a doorway in his cellar and into a stunning and unfamiliar bucolic landscape -- remarkably like the fantasy world Lytten is writing about. There she meets a young boy named Jay who is about to embark on a journey that will change both their lives. Elsewhere, in a distopian society where progress is controlled by a corrupt ruling elite, the brilliant scientist Angela Meerson has discovered the potential of a powerful new machine. When the authorities come knocking, she will make an important decision -- one that will reverberate through all these different lives and worlds.

Iain Pears: Arcadia. Vintage Books, ISBN: 9781101970836 (January, 2017), 591 p., $17.00.

Iain Pears: Arcadia (UK 2016)

From the Publisher:
Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers.

April, 1960: In the cellar of a professor's house in Oxford, fifteen-year-old Rosie goes in search of a missing cat -- and instead finds herself in a different world.

Anterwold is a sun-drenched land of storytellers and prophecies. But is this world real -- and what happens if Rosie decides to stay?

Meanwhile, a rebellious scientist is trying to prove that time does not even exist -- with potentially devastating consequences.

As the three worlds come together, one question arises: who controls the future -- or the past...?

Iain Pears: Arcadia. Faber & Faber, ISBN: 9780571301577 (June, 2016), 724 p., £8.99.

Iain Pears: Arcadia (USA 2016)

From the Publisher:
From the author of the international bestseller An Instance of the Fingerpost, Arcadia is an astonishing work of imagination.

Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers. But who controls the future -- or the past?

In 1960s Oxford, Professor Henry Lytten is attempting to write a fantasy novel that forgoes the magic of his predecessors, J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. He finds an unlikely confidante in his quick-witted, inquisitive young neighbor Rosie. One day, while chasing Lytten’s cat, Rosie encounters a doorway in his cellar. She steps through and finds herself in an idyllic, pastoral land where Storytellers are revered above all others. There she meets a young man who is about to embark on a quest of his own -- and may be the one chance Rosie has of returning home. These breathtaking adventures ultimately intertwine with the story of an eccentric psychomathematician whose breakthrough discovery will affect all of these different lives and worlds.

Dazzlingly inventive and deeply satisfying, Arcadia tests the boundaries of storytelling and asks: If the past can change the future, then might the future also indelibly alter the past?

Iain Pears: Arcadia. A Novel. Alfred A. Knopf, ISBN: 9781101946824 (February, 2016), 509 p., $27.95.

Iain Pears: Arcadia (UK 2015)

From the Publisher:
A captivating adventure story with huge heart and dazzling imaginative power, from the bestselling author of An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Three interlocking worlds. Four people looking for answers. But who controls the future - or the past?

In the basement of a professor's house in 1960s Oxford, fifteen-year-old Rosie goes in search of a missing cat - and instead finds herself in a different world.

Anterwold is a sun-drenched land of storytellers, prophecies and ritual. But is this world real - and what happens if she decides to stay?

Meanwhile, in a sterile laboratory, a rebellious scientist is trying to prove that time does not even exist - with potentially devastating consequences.

Iain Pears: Arcadia. Faber & Faber, ISBN: 9780571301553 (September, 2015), 596 p., £18.99.