Thanks to Random House for the free advance copy of this book. 
Utopia Avenue is the hottest new band in 1960s England. The four members were brought together by their manager, who saw that their separate potentials could come together and create stardom. And he was right, for two albums, at least. 

Well, how does one sum up a nearly 600-page novel we've been waiting five years for? "Sprawling epic" hardly does it justice. This book begins in the gutters of London and ends in the hills of Los Angeles and visits a dozen or more locations inbetween, all while digging deep into the backstories of each of the band members. 

Additionally, given that this is a David Mitchell novel, it is set in his existing multiverse and many characters from previous books recur, ranging from Bat Segundo to, of course, Marinus. And naturally, band member Jasper de Zoet is a descendant of Jacob de Zoet, which comes into play quite dramatically. Usually I tell people you don't need to read Mitchell novels in any order to know what's going on, but I think this might be an exception and this one plotline will make a lot more sense if you've read THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET. 

I will say it did feel a bit long in the middle, but maybe only because it took most of the book before any temporal or supernatural hijinks occurred, which are my favorite parts of Mitchell novels. But UTOPIA AVENUE is a wonderfully detailed look at the highs and lows of rocketing to fame, with cameos from every musician and culture maker from the era popping delightfully in along the way. 

Content warnings: racism, sexism, alcoholism, addiction, abuse, sexual harassment, sibling death, child death, attempted suicide, dated racial slurs.