Russell Banks is a fiction writer and twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work has been translated into 20 languages and received numerous prizes and awards. It’s 1971 in Banks’ The Magic Kingdom: A Novel (Knopf), and a property speculator named Harley Mann begins recording his life story onto a reel-to-reel machine. Reflecting on his childhood in the early 20th century, Harley recounts that after his father’s sudden death, his family migrated to Florida’s swamplands to join a community of Shakers. The place was mere miles away from what would become Disney World. Led by Elder John, a generous man with a mysterious past, the colony devoted itself to labor, faith, and charity, rejecting all temptations that lay beyond the property. This way of life initially saved Harley and his family from complete ruin. But when Harley fell in love with Sadie Pratt, a patient living on the grounds, his loyalty to the Shakers and their conservative worldview grew strained and, ultimately, breaks. As Harley dictates his story – meditating on youth, Florida’s ever-changing landscape, and the search for an American utopia – the truth about Sadie, Elder John, and the Shakers comes to light.