Arcadio

Completed while he was dying, William Goyen's Arcadio is one of the most affecting and imaginative farewells to life ever written. Arcadio is a half man, half woman raised in a whorehouse and for years the veteran exhibitionist in an itinerant circus sideshow. After he escapes he searches for his lost family, and during the journey tells the fantastic story of his life.

"William Goyen's new novel Arcadio ranks among his most powerful and original visionary works. It virtually pulses with life; it is both audacious and wise; a timeless fable that manages to be boldly contemporary as well." --Joyce Carol Oates

"[A] triumph of the imagination. . . . the overwhelming power of a myth brought to life." --Publishers Weekly