Utopia Avenue: A novel

Category: Book
By (author): Mitchell, David
Subject:  FICTION / Dystopian
  FICTION / General
  FICTION / Literary
  FICTION / Science Fiction / General
Publisher: Knopf Random Vintage Canada
Published: May 2021
Format: Book-paperback
Pages: 592
Size: 8.00in x 5.18in
Our Price:
$ 23.00
Availability:
In stock

Additional Notes

From The Publisher*NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From the internationally bestselling author of The Bone Clocks and Cloud Atlas.

Utopia Avenue may be the most extraordinary British band you've never heard of. Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, and fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss and guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet, Utopia Avenue embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, a TV debut on Top of the Pops, the cusp of chart success, glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome and a fateful American sojourn in the Chelsea Hotel, Laurel Canyon, and San Francisco during the autumn of '68.

David Mitchell's kaleidoscopic novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue's turbulent life and times; of fame's Faustian pact and stardom's wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don't; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?
Review Quote*Praise for Utopia Avenue:

"[A] slice of paradise . . . Utopia Avenue is, page by page, a sheer pleasure to read. Mitchell's prose is suppler and richer than ever, and his ability to conjure a historical milieu he never actually experienced does not falter. . . .  Making your way through this novel feels like riding a high-end convertible down Hollywood Boulevard on the prettiest day of the year while luminaries wave to you from the sidewalks." -Slate

"Mitchell's rich imaginative stews bubble with history and drama, and this time the flavour is a blend of Carnaby Street and Chateau Marmont." -The Washington Post

"Now, more than ever, it seems vital to examine the various ways that our lives are densely interconnected rather than isolated and separate. Utopia Avenue brilliantly explores this theme." -Los Angeles Review of Books

"Mitchell superbly conveys the energy and spirit of the age. . . . [Utopia Avenue] is a supremely readable novel . . . The book is most alive and most compelling when Mitchell slips the surly bonds of the realist premise and lands in his own extraordinary imagined worlds." -The Guardian

"[C]aptivating. . . . [A] deep and textured classic-rock tale . . . Mitchell marvelously brings it all to life by focusing his most engaging storytelling on each band member's own evolution, along with some experimental narrative and exceptional in-concert scenes. . . . Utopia Avenue is a fun and fulfilling read. . . . [A] rock ‘n' roll road trip whose characters and narrative become the song that gets stuck in your head." -USA Today

"Expect prose that's as electric as the music." -Kirkus Reviews

"Mitchell's magical, much anticipated latest is a rollicking, rapturous tale of 1960s rock 'n' roll . . . delivering more fun, more mischief, and more heart than ever before. This is Mitchell at his best." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Praise for David Mitchell

"To open a Mitchell book is to set forth on an adventure." -The Boston Globe
"Mitchell is, clearly, a genius. He writes as though at the helm of some perpetual dream machine, [and] can evidently do anything." -The New York Times Book Review

"A genre-bending, time-leaping, world-traveling, puzzle-making, literary magician." -Esquire

"No writer alive seems to be having as much fun as Mitchell." -The Globe and Mail

"If David Mitchell isn't the most talented novelist of his generation, is there any doubt that he is the most multi-talented?" -The Atlantic

"[David Mitchell is] prodigiously daring and imaginative. . . . As in the works of Thomas Pynchon and Herman Melville, one feels the roof of the narrative lifted off and oneself in thrall." -Time

"Astonishing, moving effortlessly from elegant genre fiction to satire to high-end literary pyrotechnics. . . . Prodigiously skilled and gloriously ambitious." -Toronto Star

 "Entertaining and thrilling." -NPR
Biographical NoteDAVID MITCHELL is the award-winning and bestselling author of Slade House, The Bone Clocks, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Cloud Atlas, Number9Dream, and Ghostwritten. Twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME magazine. With KA Yoshida, Mitchell translated from the Japanese Naoki Higashida's internationally bestselling memoir The Reason I Jump. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.