Playground Zero - by Sarah Relyea (Paperback)

About the Book

When the Rayson family leaves the East Coast for the gathering anarchy of Berkeley, young Alice Rayson embraces the moment in a place that's fast becoming a cultural ground zero--and for a girl, that's no Summer of Love.

Book Synopsis

It's the season of siren songs and loosened bonds―as well as war, campaign slogans, and assassination. At the height of the Vietnam War protests, Washington lawyer Tom Rayson uproots his family for the freewheeling city of Berkeley. While Tom pursues a romance with a sexy colleague in the Marin County woods, Marian joins a peace party that's running a Black Panther for president and meets the Berkeley revolution. But for young Alice, her parents' liberating forays become a blind leap in a city marked by beauty and social change―and for a girl, that's no Summer of Love.

Feeling estranged from her family, Alice embraces the moment and falls in with Jim and Valerie Dupres. Jim and Valerie have been learning the ropes on Telegraph Avenue, cadging meals at a nearby communal house and camping out in People's Park. Soon they're confronting National Guardsmen. As family and school fade away in a tear-gas fog, Alice feels an ambiguous freedom. Caught up in a rebellion that feels equally compelling, scary, and absurd, Alice could become a casualty--or she could defy the odds and become her own person. One thing is sure: there's no going back.

Review Quotes

2021 International Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Literary
2021 Readers' Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Fiction: Social Issues

"This intense retrospective on people yanked out of the strait-laced
Fifties and tossed into a culture of anything goes will appeal to
readers wanting to learn more about Berkeley's days of rage."

--Historical Novels Review

"Like the writing of Jodi Picoult, Sarah Relyea has the ability to build
a particular drama into a compelling plot, unveiled through multiple
points of view. . . . Through music, literature, and actual events, the
author creates a clear picture of the 1960s, especially the tumultuous
events and the free-love flower power that swept the west coast in
particular. This is a powerful, historical drama. Well constructed."

--Readers' Favorite, five-star review

"An eerily compelling déjà vu of the free, wild, and jeopardy-ridden kid scene in late-1960s Berkeley. Uncanny and powerful."

--Charles Degelman, Editor, Harvard Square Editions

"Like a trip through the Looking Glass, Sarah Relyea's engrossing debut
novel takes you by the hand back to the sixties, where social rules were
being challenged and political upheaval was the norm."

--Patricia Hurtado, Brooklyn writer and journalist with Bloomberg News

"A fascinating exploration of a strange and exciting time in US history .
. . I was totally immersed in the story as Alice grows and develops in a
world in which freedom has many different outcomes."
--NetGalley