Utopia Avenue - by David Mitchell

About the Book

"Soho, London, 1967. Folk-rock-psychedelic quartet Utopia Avenue is formed. Guitarist Jasper de Zoet, a shy, half-Dutch public-school musical prodigy, was hearing voices long before he dropped acid. Keyboardist Elf Holloway must defy the prejudices of her bank manager father, her housewife mother, and her age to forge her own career. Bassist Dean Moss cannot, will not, spend his life on the factory floor like everyone else in Gravesend. Band manager Levon Frankland--gay, Jewish, and Canadian--is not unduly burdened by conscience. The drummer is a drummer. Over two years and two albums, Utopia Avenue navigates the dark end of the Sixties: its parties, drugs and egos, political change and personal tragedy; and the trials of life as a working band in London, the provinces, European capitals and, finally, the promised land of America. What is art? What is fame? What is music? How can the whole be more than the sum of its parts? Can idealism change the world? How does your youth shape your life? This is the story of Utopia Avenue. Not everyone lives to the end"--

Book Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - The long-awaited new novel from the bestselling, prize-winning author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone Clocks.

New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice - "Mitchell's rich imaginative stews bubble with history and drama, and this time the flavor is a blend of Carnaby Street and Chateau Marmont."--The Washington Post

"A sheer pleasure to read . . . Mitchell's prose is suppler and richer than ever . . . Making your way through this novel feels like riding a high-end convertible down Hollywood Boulevard."--Slate

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post - NPR - USA Today - The Guardian - The Independent - Kirkus Reviews - Men's Health - PopMatters

Utopia Avenue is the strangest British band you've never heard of. Emerging from London's psychedelic scene in 1967, and fronted by folk singer Elf Holloway, blues bassist Dean Moss and guitar virtuoso Jasper de Zoet, Utopia Avenue embarked on a meteoric journey from the seedy clubs of Soho, a TV debut on Top of the Pops, the cusp of chart success, glory in Amsterdam, prison in Rome, and a fateful American sojourn in the Chelsea Hotel, Laurel Canyon, and San Francisco during the autumn of '68.

David Mitchell's kaleidoscopic novel tells the unexpurgated story of Utopia Avenue's turbulent life and times; of fame's Faustian pact and stardom's wobbly ladder; of the families we choose and the ones we don't; of voices in the head, and the truths and lies they whisper; of music, madness, and idealism. Can we really change the world, or does the world change us?

Review Quotes

"[Mitchell]'s work has been compared to that of Haruki Murakami, Thomas Pynchon and Anthony Burgess. But he occupies a field of his own. His eight novels are experimental but approachable. His sentences can be lyrical, but his prose is propulsive. Beneath the layers of references and unconventional structures lie lucid narratives. Mitchell's obsessions-beyond the fictional meta-universe he has created-are with human voyages of self-actualization; the process of figuring out who we are, and how we connect, in the brief time we have."--Time

"In 2020, there is something utopian about the idea of people gathering together to make and record and play music, to create a scenius together. We'll get back to the garden someday."--Los Angeles Times

"Mitchell, whose novels range through different modes and genres with extraordinary facility, has a lucid, kinetic style at all times, but he is never more impressive than when writing in close third person about characters in altered mental states--captivity, physical pain, madness. . . . A conventional story of a band's rise turns into a book on another plane entirely."--The New Yorker

"For his first novel in five years, the author explores the universal language of music. . . . It's Daisy Jones & the Six on acid."--Entertainment Weekly

"For his first novel in five years, the author explores the universal language of music . . . it's Daisy Jones & the Six on acid."--Entertainment Weekly

"The British pop-folk-rock band Utopia Avenue this novel focuses on seems so true to life, at least one reviewer (who shall not be named) may have Googled them just to confirm that they were a figment of the author's imagination."--AARP

"Utopia Avenue's got all the sex, drugs, and broken dreams you want in a rock novel, plus guest appearances by Jagger, Jerry, Janis, and Jim (Morrison)."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Mitchell continues to use the rhythms of surface reality to dig much deeper, but without ever losing the beat."--Booklist (starred review)

"Mitchell unspools at least a dozen original song lyrics and descriptions of performances that are just as fiery and infectious as his narratives. This is Mitchell at his best."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Those whose musical tastes end in the early 1970s--and literary tastes are up to the minute--will especially enjoy Mitchell's yarn."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

About the Author

David Mitchell is the author of the novels Ghostwritten, number9dream, Cloud Atlas, Black Swan Green, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, The Bone Clocks, and Slade House. Twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 2018 he won the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.