Drop City

T. C. Boyle

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It is 1970, and a down-at-the-heels California commune devoted to peace, free love and the simple life has decided to relocate to the last frontier - the unforgiving landscape of interior Alaska - in the ultimate expression of going back to the land. The novel opposes two groups of characters: Sess Harder, his wife, Pamela, and other young Alaskans who are already successfully homesteading in the wilderness, and the brothers and sisters of "Drop City," led by Norm Sander and three idealistic emigres from the east coast, Star, her boyfriend, Marco, and Ronnie. As these two communities collide, unexpected friendships and dangerous enmities are born as everyone struggles with the bare essentials of life: love, nourishment and a roof over one's head.