Lost in Arcadia: A Novel

Written by Sean Gandert

Narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon

Sean Gandert paints a startling dystopia that will resonate with fans of Station Eleven and A Visit from the Goon Squad.

The America of 2037 is a country distracted by, infatuated with, and addicted to Arcadia. The brainchild of reclusive genius Juan Diego Reyes, Arcadia is a wickedly immersive, all-encompassing social-media platform and virtual-reality interface. Although Arcadia has made the Reyes family fabulously wealthy, it’s left them—and the rest of the country—impoverished of that rare currency: intimacy. When Juan Diego mysteriously vanishes, the consequences shatter the lives of the entire Reyes clan.

As matriarch Autumn struggles to hold the family together, siblings Gideon, Holly, and Devon wrestle with questions of purpose and meaning—seeking self-worth in a world where everything has been cheapened. Outside the artificial safety of Arcadia, America has crumbled into an unrecognizable nation where a fundamentalist ex-preacher occupies the Oval Office, megacorporations blithely exploit their full citizenship, and a twenty-foot-high Great Wall of Freedom plastered with lucrative advertising bestrides the US-Mexican border.

In a polarized society now cripplingly hooked on manufactured highs, the Reyes family must overcome the seduction of simulation to find the kind of authentic human connection that offers salvation for all.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jul 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781536669060

Sean Gandert

Sean Gandert was born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and an MFA in creative writing from Bennington College. A freelance writer and college English instructor, Sean’s reviews and interviews have appeared in Paste magazine and other publications. An avid gamer, Sean currently resides in Florida with his partner and their three cats.

Reviews for Lost in Arcadia

[Patricia North · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Started out decent little sci-fi....
ended up Arcadia is a rip off of "OASIS"
while managing to actually paint stereotypes of everyone i am sure were made to look and act a certain way.... but in doing so makes Black people, Mexican American people and Religious working class white people all look bad. The president is "President Hate" ... with an uncanny cadence to his voice. Even his wife's name is ripped off lol Magda (added a D) instead of MAGA and describing her as basically a blonde model out if a catalouge with "an eating disorder with her ribs sticking out"...
Then they start talking about how the president has made a basically "no brown allowed" law where police only go in swat teams to their neighboorhoods (really portraying "minorities" well here huh?) and how they are building a giant wall along the mexicN border. The author even manages to make Southern "Baptists" and catholics both look bad. Released in 2017...
2 stars as it started off interesting and light...
now I am just switching back to Phillip K. Dick novels. Narrator is ok until she starts with the accents-- a very chicank mexican accent and a ghetto black accent. i could sugar coat it... but this is too horrible to sugar coat.
Manages to only make... well i can not think of one character that was not stereotyped horribly... he made the whole US American population look awful!!