Synopsis

The Number One bestselling novel by the author of Cloud Atlas, 'one of the most brilliantly inventive writers of this, or any country' (Independent).

Utopia Avenue might be the most curious British band you've never heard of.

Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, folksinger Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss, guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet and jazz drummer Griff Griffin together created a unique sound, with lyrics that captured their turbulent times. The band produced only two albums in two years, yet their musical legacy lives on.

This is the story of Utopia Avenue's brief, blazing journey from Soho clubs and draughty ballrooms to the promised land of America, just when the Summer of Love was receding into something much darker - a multi-faceted tale of dreams, drugs, love, sexuality, madness and grief; of stardom's wobbly ladder and fame's Faustian pact; and of the collision between youthful idealism and jaded reality as the Sixties drew to a close.

Above all, this bewitching novel celebrates the power of music to connect across divides, define an era and thrill the soul.

Details

• Format : Thicker 2nd Hand Paperback
• Condition : Good (Obviously Read)
• Category : Fiction - Modern Mainstream Fiction
• Published : 2020 (This Edition 2021 - Sceptre)
• ISBN : 9781444799477
• SKU : B003081
• PPC : SP400gm
• RRP : £8.99
• Quantity Available : 1 only.

External Reviews

"This lively, colourful read charts the rise of an unlikely bunch of musicians as they head from small-town venues to the glitter and gleam of fame in LA. As Elf, Dean, Griff and guitar genius Jasper de Zoet hit the big time, Utopia Avenue takes you on a wild ride through the tail end of the psychedelic 60's.' - Sunday Express, Books of the Year.

'A 1960s music epic.' - Justine Jordan, Guardian Books of the Year.

'Mitchell is expert at excavating the seams of loss, ambition and mere chance that lie under the edifice of fame . . . The reader is impelled from the first by a kind of rushing, gleeful energy . . . a supremely readable novel, if the quality of readability is taken to be one which is difficult to achieve and a relief to encounter.' - Sarah Perry, The Guardian.

'A book bristling with pleasures . . . An overwhelmingly vivid - and equally exhilarating - portrait of an era when the future seemed likely to be shaped by a combination of young people and music. At the same time, there's a melancholy sense of the transience of this idealism . . . Utopia Avenue confirms that his real talent - perhaps even genius - lies in finding wildly entertaining new ways to tell old truths.' - James Walton, Spectator.

'What makes it a stand-out triumph is the vibrant flair with which it recreates an era, the acuteness with which it explores composition and performance, and its often witty verbal finesse.' - Peter Kemp, Sunday Times.

'Superb, enormous fun . . . a celebratory page-turner.' - Ben Masters, The Literary Review.

The Author

David Mitchell is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, Black Swan Green, Number9Dream, Ghostwritten, Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks. Twice shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Mitchell was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2007. He lives in Ireland with his wife and two children.

Featured Author . . . David Mitchell