The Booker Prize-winning author of Possession delivers a brilliant and thought-provoking novel about the 1960s and how the psychology, science, religion, ethics, and radicalism of the times affected ordinary lives.
"Rich, acerbic, wise.... [Byatt] tackles nothing less than what it means to be human." --Vogue
Frederica Potter, a smart, spirited 33-year-old single mother, lucks into a job hosting a groundbreaking television talk show based in London. Meanwhile, in her native Yorkshire where her lover is involved in academic research, the university is planning a prestigious conference on body and mind, and a group of students and agitators is establishing an "anti-university." And nearby a therapeutic community is beginning to take the shape of a religious cult under the influence of its charismatic religious leader.