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Book Cover for: Halcyon, Elliot Ackerman

Halcyon

Elliot Ackerman

Reader Score

73%

73% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Good

Based on 5 reviews on

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A daring new novel, at once timely and timeless, set around an American family and the ever-shifting sands of history and memory and legacy that define them ("An expert juggling act." --Stephen Markley, New York Times Book Review)

Martin Neumann, recently divorced, is living at Halcyon, the Virginia estate of renowned lawyer, family patriarch, and World War II hero Robert Ableson. It's 2004, and Gore is entering his second term as president, when news breaks that scientists have discovered a cure for death. Suddenly, Martin is forced to question everything he thought he understood about the world around him. Who is Ableson, really? Why has Martin been drawn into the Ablesons' most closely guarded family secrets? Is this new science a miraculous good or an insidious evil?

From pivotal elections to crumbling marriages, from the Civil War to the Battle of Saipan, Halcyon is a profound and probing novel that grapples with what history means, who is affected by it, and how the complexities of our shared future rest on the dual foundations of remembering and forgetting.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
  • Publish Date: May 23rd, 2023
  • Pages: 256
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.35in - 5.75in - 1.02in - 1.58lb
  • EAN: 9780593321621
  • Categories: Alternative HistoryPoliticalFamily Life - Marriage & Divorce

About the Author

ELLIOT ACKERMAN is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Halcyon, 2034, Red Dress In Black and White, Waiting for Eden, Dark at the Crossing, and Green on Blue, as well as the memoir The Fifth Act: America's End in Afghanistan, and Places and Names: On War, Revolution and Returning. His books have been nominated for the National Book Award, the Andrew Carnegie Medal in both fiction and nonfiction, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize among others. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and Marine veteran who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he received the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. He divides his time between New York City and Washington, D.C.

More books by Elliot Ackerman

Book Cover for: 2054, Elliot Ackerman
Book Cover for: Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning, Elliot Ackerman
Book Cover for: The Fifth ACT: America's End in Afghanistan, Elliot Ackerman
Book Cover for: Green on Blue, Elliot Ackerman
Book Cover for: Red Dress in Black and White, Elliot Ackerman
Book Cover for: Waiting for Eden, Elliot Ackerman

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

"An expert juggling act . . . Idiosyncratic and engrossing throughout." --Stephen Markley, New York Times Book Review

"Halcyon is an entertaining thought experiment, and Ackerman writes with a gentle, graceful style . . . Ackerman delivers a potent critique of the what-if nature of talking about history . . . Ackerman, as much as any working novelist today, is invested in getting the facts of war and history right." --Mark Athitakis, Washington Post

"A blend of counterfactual history and futurism and a way to think about some of our thorniest social and cultural issues today." --Jeffery Gedmin, American Purpose

"Frightening, funny, and thought-provoking." --Mark Braude, The Octavian Report

"Ingenious . . . Elliot Ackerman prefers challenging questions over convenient answers, leaving ample room for readers to engage in leaps of imagination as bold as the ones he's undertaken . . . Blending alternative history with science fiction, Ackerman artfully explores several provocative issues that have become flash points in contemporary America." --Bookpage

"Thought-provoking . . . Visionary." --Publishers Weekly

"A novel of ideas in an age of opinions." --Kirkus Reviews

"A thoughtful and fascinating thought experiment, one that explores mortality, fate, and the malleability of historical memory." --Booklist