Real People

An artists' colony is a false paradise for a frustrated writer in this "witty, knowing, and perceptive" novel from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author (The New Yorker).

The mansion is called Illyria, but for the writers and artists who flock there each summer, it's a Garden of Eden where every artistic curiosity is explored. Away from family, friends, and ordinary responsibilities, the creative spirit can flower, nurtured by the company of other artistic souls. Janet Belle Smith's husband doesn't understand why she can't write at home--or really, for that matter, why she must write at all--but for Janet, the reason is clear: Only in Illyria can she be herself.

But as the writer mingles with her fellow artists--including a Marxist novelist, a Beat poet, and a wild-man sculptor--she begins to fear that the "real" her isn't who she expected, and Illyria is not the peaceful kingdom it appears to be. This creative paradise is rotting from the inside out, and if Janet doesn't move quickly, she'll be trapped in the rubble when the walls come tumbling down.

From the National Book Award-shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs, this humorous story "goes down pleasantly, like a glass of lemonade" (The New York Times).
About the Author: Alison Lurie (1926-2020) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in Chicago and raised in White Plains, New York, she joined the English department at Cornell University in 1970, where she taught courses on children's literature, among others. Her first novel, Love and Friendship (1962), is a story of romance and deception among the faculty of a snowbound New England college. It won favorable reviews and established her as a keen observer of love in academia. It was followed by the well-received The Nowhere City (1966) and The War Between the Tates (1974). In 1984, she published Foreign Affairs, her best-known novel, which traces the erotic entanglements of two American professors in England. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. Her most recent novel is The Last Resort (1998). In addition to her novels, Lurie's interest in children's literature led to three collections of folk tales and two critical studies of the genre. Lurie officially retired from Cornell in 1998, but continued to teach and write in the years following. In 2012, she was awarded a two-year term as the official author of the state of New York.