Arcadia
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faber & Faber
Abstract
Professor Henry Lytten lives in England, at the time of the Cold War. He is a retired spy and Oxford don who decides to dedicate himself to writing, envisioning a story set in a different universe, the Anterworld, a kind of pastoral utopia. Meanwhile, in a distant future (24th century), scientist and psychomathematician Angela Meerson is responsible for creating a portal that allows time and space travelling, with the possibility of people venturing into parallel universes. She eventually travels to Lytten’s time, meets him, and gets to know more about the Anterworld, with the objective of conceiving an alternate universe that would resemble Lytten’s creation. Rosie, Lytten’s fifteen-year-old neighbour, goes into Lytten’s basement one day and, unbeknownst to her, Meerson had hidden a portal in that place, allowing Rosie to travel to the Anterworld which Meerson was creating. Chaos ensues, as Rosie disturbs the balance of that universe, while Meerson was actually hiding in it. It is eventually revealed to the reader that Meerson is hiding in the Anterworld because she comes from a totalitarian society in which many people wish to use her invention for apocalyptic ends.
Description
Keywords
parallel universe , time travel , alternate universe , fantasy , portal
Citation
Pears, Iain. Arcadia. Faber & Faber, 2015.