Arcadia - Jim Crace

For Victor's eightieth birthday, his right-hand man Hook prepares a special celebration - a country feast in the heart of the city, twenty-seven storeys up. But Victor is making preparations of his own to leave his mark on the city as indelible and disruptive as the mark the city left on him. The scene is set for Arcadia, the dream of those who live in cities . . .

'Twice as long as Continent and The Gift of Stones, Arcadia leaps the broader span with fluent, witty and pyrotechnic ease' Michael Ratcliffe, Observer

'Not since Moby Dick has blank verse thrummed so relentlessly beneath the surface of prose . . . the effect is thrilling' Adam Mars-Jones, Independent

'Sentence for sentence, it must be one of the most beautifully written books in years' David Robson, Sunday Telegraph