‘Land of Cockaigne examines the impact the wealthy have on their communities, the ugliness of reactionary politics, and the sometimes insular nature of small towns.’’
Portland Press Herald
The Land of Cockaigne was an old medieval peasants’ dream of a sensual paradise on earth. In Jeffrey Lewis’s novel, the Land of Cockaigne is a plot on the coast of Maine, once a summer resort and now where married couple, Walter Rath and Catherine Gray, are trying to assuage their grief and make meaningful their deceased son’s life, build what they hope will be a brief, fleeting version of paradise for a group of young men from the Bronx.
But the town of Sneeds Harbor is not amused. Well-meaning doubts lead to well-hidden threats. The Raths’ marriage unravels as fatefully as Walter’s faith in democracy. Boys who’ve only ever known the city find themselves in a land that may as well be the moon.