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‘A formidable, necessary voice in fiction’ Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising
‘Dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical’ Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
‘A feat of old-school storytelling’ The Observer
WINNER OF THE READING THE WEST BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION. LONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE. LONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION.
There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.
Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors’ origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.
Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love-filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.
‘Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you’re swimming under a big, sparkling night sky’ Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere
‘Dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical’ Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist
‘A feat of old-school storytelling’ The Observer
WINNER OF THE READING THE WEST BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION. LONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE. LONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION.
There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.
Luz “Little Light” Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors’ origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.
Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love-filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.
‘Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you’re swimming under a big, sparkling night sky’ Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere
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Reviews
Pure, simple, and luminescent . . . There are no other words to describe Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Woman of Light; a brilliant conflagration of a story that opens the eyes and inflames the heart
With a single phrase, line of dialogue, description, Fajardo-Anstine has the power to accurately express the joy and sadness in a person's life, their history, how the world comes into contact with us, and how we come into contact with the world. . . . Captivating
A rare and wondrous kind of novel that assembles the universe from mere words, whose unforgettable characters haunt like long shadows in the southwestern light
There is so much to love about this saga . . . this novel is wholly engrossing. Loved it.
A transporting story of the importance of family history told in a luminescent style
Fajardo-Anstine's storytelling is absolutely engrossing
An unparalleled generational saga . . . one of the most potent voices in contemporary Latino and Native American literature
A novel with vast reach
Woman of Light is a sweeping family saga, as the Lopez family makes their way back to their generational home. Farjado-Anstine incorporates the culturally significant elements of magical realism and nonlinear storytelling in her work.
Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you're swimming under a big, sparkling night sky
An intimate and intensely moving story of a Latinx and Indigenous family in the American West. Kali Fajardo-Anstine's lyrical, unpretentious prose renders the generations of women of this story in all of their complexity, offering a nuanced perspective on how the past can inform the future . . . A formidable, necessary voice in fiction
A fascinatingly rich setting . . . Fajardo-Anstine is brilliant at evoking the everyday resilience of people carrying centuries of history in their souls . . . Woman of Light achieves something very satisfying as a soapy, immersive saga - a feat of old-school storytelling
An entrancing book about the stories we carry, the ones we need to keep telling. Fajardo-Anstine has given us another stunning cast of characters to root for
[A] bewitching debut novel
A lush, immersive historical novel
A cinematic, epic story. Kali Fajardo-Anstine brings her keen understanding of desire, vulnerability, and destiny to this gorgeous reclaiming of lost history
This novel is indelible, and shines its big light on the Lopez family so brightly that I could draw a map of their breath. . . . An absolutely glorious novel