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Book Cover for: Halcyon, Elliot Ackerman

Halcyon

Elliot Ackerman

Paperback
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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)

Virginia, 2004. Gore is entering his second term as president. Our narrator, Martin Neumann, recently divorced, is living at Halcyon, the estate of renowned lawyer and World War II hero Robert Ableson. When news breaks that scientists funded by the Gore administration have discovered a cure for death, it calls into question everything Martin thought he understood about life, not least his work as a historian. Who is Ableson, really, and why did he draw Martin into his orbit? Is this new science a miraculous good or an insidious evil?
Stretching from pivotal elections to intimate family secrets, from the Battle of Saipan to the toppling of Confederate monuments, 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 Doubleday Publishing Group
  • Publish Date: Aug 6th, 2024
  • Pages: 256
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.90in - 5.10in - 0.80in - 0.48lb
  • EAN: 9780593467084
  • Categories: ‱ Alternative History‱ Political‱ Family 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 a veteran of the Marine Corps and CIA special operations, having 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

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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: Dark at the Crossing, Elliot Ackerman
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What people are saying

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Elliot Ackerman
@elliotackerman
1 year

Elliot Ackerman is an author.

Lovely review in ⁊@nytimesbooks⁩ for HALCYON on pub day. “It is our own constant frustration and confrontation with history that threatens to drive us to a permanent state of rage-ennui, for history is not easily derailed.” ⁊@AAKnopf⁩ https://t.co/DUev2IY6DY

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New York Times Books
@nytimesbooks
1 year

All things books from The New York Times. You like reading, we do too.

What if Al Gore won the presidency in 2000? Elliot Ackerman’s novel “Halcyon” presents an alternate history of the early 21st century. https://t.co/xbEXGn9JW3

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BookPage
@bookpage
1 year

We recommend the best new books across genres each month, as chosen by our editors. Discover your next great book!

.@elliotackerman 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. @AAKnopf https://t.co/o9rCUSyqYh

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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

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