Arcadia, By Lauren Groff

Poppy-seed cake, polygamy and patchouli are just some of the ingredients of Seventies communal life recalled in this sensuous novel.

Bit is the first child to be born in a hippy enclave in New York State, and we see the world through his eyes.

As ever, there's trouble in paradise, and life on the commune is as problematic as elsewhere: "Jeannise had sex with both Hank and Horse, and now the twins aren't talking to one another. Which is bad because they are the Sanitation Crew and pump out the loos."