Description

From one of Americas most beloved storytellers a dazzling tapestry of love and faith memory and imagination that questions what it means to look back and accept ones place in history In 1971 Harley Mann revisits his childhood recounting his familys move to Floridas swamplandsmere miles away from what would become Disney Worldto join a community of Shakers

Eerily timely Can whats gone wrong in the past offer keys to the future The Magic Kingdom confronts our longings for Paradise also the inner serpents that are to be found in all such enchanted gardens Margaret Atwood author of The Testaments via Twitter

Property speculator Harley Mann begins recording his life story onto a reeltoreel machine reflecting on his youth in the early twentieth century He recounts that after his fathers sudden death his family migrated down to Florida to join a Shaker colony Led by Elder John a generous man with a mysterious past the colony devoted itself to labor faith and charity rejecting all temptations that lay beyond the property Though this way of life initially saved Harley and his family from complete ruin when Harley began falling in love with Sadie Pratt a consumptive patient living on the grounds his loyalty to the Shakers and their conservative worldview grew strained and ultimately broke

As Harley dictates his story across more than half a centurymeditating on youth Floridas everchanging landscape and the search for an American utopiathe truth about Sadie Elder John and the Shakers comes to light clarifying the past and present alike With an expert eye and stunning vision Russell Banks delivers a wholly captivating portrait of a man navigating Americana and the passage of time