I stepped way out of my comfort zone last time I checked books out. I picked up “Arcadia” by Iain Pears. It was innocently lying on the table near the front doors. It beckoned to me.
This books took some diligence and perseverance, on my part, to get into. I admit that I was confused and I did some paging back and forth the first couple of sittings. I seriously thought of putting it aside permanently. Then, I was in!
Interestingly, that is essentially what the story is about… There are three unique worlds, realities, times, that a very few characters overlap. Actions in one, don’t seem to directly affect another. It’s a hard book to explain.
There is an elderly professor/storyteller and a young, somewhat bored girl who visits the professor and takes care of his cat. There is a group of scientists who are working on a machine to explore alternate universes. There is also a group of people living simply off the land. These three groups are in different “realities”, or are they even real?
This is definitely not a book for everyone. It took intentional reading and there are times that I appreciate this. If you are in a rut, tired of fluffy romance, cringing at the gory murder mystery or find yourself zipping through books and getting little satisfaction, check this one out!
Deb Egeland
