A Theatre for Dreamers

A Novel

by Polly Samson

On Sale: 05/11/2021

A Theatre for Dreamers

Enlarge Book Cover

A Theatre for Dreamers

A Novel

by Polly Samson

On Sale: 05/11/2021

Format:

About the Book

1960. The world is dancing on the edge of revolution, and nowhere more so than on the Greek island of Hydra, where a circle of poets, painters and musicians live tangled lives, ruled by the writers Charmian Clift and George Johnston, troubled queen and king of bohemia. Forming within this circle is a triangle: its points the magnetic, destructive writer Axel Jensen; his dazzling wife, Marianne Ihlen; and the young Canadian poet Leonard Cohen.

Into their midst arrives Erica, a teenager with little more than a bundle of blank notebooks and her grief for her mother. Settling on the periphery of this circle, she watches, entranced and disquieted, as a paradise unravels.

Burning with the heat and light of Greece, A Theatre for Dreamers is a spellbinding novel about utopian dreams and innocence lost, and about the wars waged between men and women on the battlegrounds of genius.

Critical Praise

"A coming-of-age story which slyly interrogates the creative battle of the sexes while transporting you to the beauty of a Greek island in summer." — Cressida Connolly, Spectator Books of the Year

"Samson captures the darkness, emerging fractures and the beauty of their lives in a sharply feminist novel." — Daily Mail (UK)

"One of the year’s most lushly enjoyable novels." — Daily Telegraph (London)

"Brings to life this world of silver-spangled seas, scrumptious food and bohemian bed-hopping." — The Times (UK)

“An alluring historical novel. . . [and] a delectable work of escapism. Set on the impossibly picturesque Greek island of Hydra, it focuses on a group of expatriate writers and artists living the bohemian life in 1960. . . . Brilliant people in a beautiful setting add up to seductive time travel, with an edge.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Polly Samson’s latest is a lush and dreamy summer read.” — Hello! Canada

“The gilded idyll of English writer Polly Samson’s A Theatre for Dreamers will transport you to the Greek island of Hydra with immersive, sensual prose: you smell the lemon trees, taste the retsina, hear the bouzouki—and long for a refreshing afternoon swim in the Aegean.” — Zoomer Magazine

“[A] fantastic summer read.” — CBC Books

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Product Details

  • ISBN: 9781443463485
  • ISBN 10: 1443463485
  • Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
  • On Sale: 05/11/2021
  • Pages: 368
  • List Price:24.99 CAD
  • BISAC1 : FICTION / Coming of Age
  • BISAC2 : FICTION / Romance / General
  • BISAC3 : FICTION / General

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