Description

‘A stand-out triumph’ – Sunday Times

The spectacular new novel from the bestselling author of CLOUD ATLAS and THE BONE CLOCKS, ‘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.

‘The great rock and roll novel – an epic love letter to the greatest music ever made and the book the music has always deserved’ Tony Parsons

Publisher Review

One of the most brilliantly inventive writers of this, or any country – Independent

An author of extraordinary ambition and skill – Independent on Sunday

Open up his head and a whole magical, ecstatic symphony of inventiveness and ideals will fly out – The Times

Mitchell’s imagination is boundless and absolutely thorough, and he is also very funny – Sunday Telegraph

A storyteller of genius . . . a man who may yet prove to be the greatest writer of his age – Mail on Sunday

Dizzyingly, dazzingly good – Daily Mail

Our most accomplished inventor of multitudinous worlds, which are filled with complex, vital people – Financial Times

His novels are unlike anything else – Spectator