Arcadia by Iain Pears

Arcadia 

by Iain Pears

Three distinct worlds, one separated by time and one by imagination.

It begins in Oxford, England, during the 1960s, with the telling of a tale. Professor Henry Lytten has been constructing his own world, much like his old friends C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, but with a distinct difference.

“I want to construct a society that works. With beliefs, laws, superstitions, customs. With an economy and politics. An entire sociology of the fantastic.”

He calls it Anterwold.

A little problem, Angela Meerson, on the run from her company with a machine she devised but they hold the rights to, hides it in Lytten's.  It is, in part, a portal, though more than that.

Of course, the girl who feeds his cat, Rosie, finds it, and steps through. Anterwold has been so thoroughly grounded that it runs on its own and Rosie becomes part of the world.

Events take place in the current, 1960, in a different time period, and in Anterwold. It is the type of book that you read then go back, enjoy thoroughly, and read again to pick up all the threads that you missed the first time. Most of all, it’s great fun.