In America is a kaleidoscopic portrait of America on the cusp of modernity. As she did in her enormously popular novel The Volcano Lover, Susan Sontag casts a story located in the past in a fresh, provocative light to create a fictional world full of contemporary resonance. In a group of Poles led by Maryna Zalezowska, Polands greatest actress, emigrate to the United States and travel to California to found a utopian commune. When the commune fails, Maryna stays, learns English, andas Marina Zalenskaforges a new, even more triumphant career on the American stage, becoming a diva on par with Sara Bernhardt. In America is about many things a womans search for self-transformation the fate of idealism a life in the theater the many varieties of love and, not least of all, stories and storytelling itself.
