IN AMERICA is Susan Sontag's bold, brilliant new novel - a kaleidoscopic portrait of America on the cusp of modernity. As she did in her enormously popular novel The Volcano Lover, which recast the legendary love affair of Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson in a fresh, provocative light, Sontag once again starts from a story located in the past to create a fictional world full of contemporary resonance.
IN AMERICA is about many things: a woman's search for self-transformation; the fate of idealism; a life on the theatre; the many varieties of love; and, not least of all, stories and storytelling itself. Operatic in the scope and intensity of the emotions it depicts (Minnie from Puccini's Girl of the Golden West makes a startling appearance), richly detailed and visionary in its account of America, and peopled with unforgettable characters, In America is Susan Sontag's largest, most astonishing achievement.