Mac's Backs Book Club discusses Elutheria by Allegra Hyde.
An optimistic parable about idealism, activism, and systemic corruption, centered on a naèive young woman's quest for agency in a world ravaged by climate change. Willa Marks has spent her whole life choosing hope. She chooses hope over her parents' paranoid conspiracy theories, over her dead-end job at a donut shop, over the rising ocean levels. And when she meets Sylvia Gill, renowned Harvard professor, she feels sure she's found the justification of that hope. Sylvia is the woman-in-black, an avenging warrior, the only person smart and sharp enough to wake up the world and force it to take action. But when Sylvia betrays her, Willa fears she has lost hope forever. And then she finds a book in Sylvia's library: a guide to fighting climate change called Living the Solution. Inspired by its message and with nothing to lose, Willa flies down to the island of Eleutheria in the Bahamas to join the author and his group of ecowarriors at Camp Hope. Upon arrival, things are not what she expected. The crew's leader, author Roy Adams, is missing, and the camp's public launch is delayed. With time running out, Willa will stop at nothing to realize Camp Hope's mission--but at what cost?
"Partly satirical, the book is also an urgent, absorbing story that asks how we are meant to live."
--The New Yorker
"The narrative toggles back and forth between the tropical island and Willa's relationship with a Harvard professor. It's a weird, melancholic adventure novel -- not a genre specimen you come across every day."
-- The New York Times
Allegra Hyde's debut story collection, Of This New World, won the John Simmons Short Fiction Award through the Iowa Short Fiction Award Series. Her stories and essays have appeared in The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, The Best Small Fictions, and The Best American Travel Writing. Originally from New Hampshire, she currently lives in Ohio and teaches at Oberlin College.
The book will be available at Mac's Backs or through our website at the 20% book club discount.
Event address:
Mac's Backs
1820 Coventry Rd.
Cleveland Hts., OH 44118