Keynote
A vibrant selection of stories from the author of Sweet Hearts and First, Body
Book Title
In This Light
Subtitle
New and Selected Stories
Cover Image
- Winner of the 2011 Utah Book Award
Body
This selection of Melanie Rae Thon’s stories showcases her breathtaking ability to become each one of her characters, to move inside the bodies and minds of the dispossessed. One woman speaks for them all: “I’m your worst fear. But not the worst thing that can happen.”
In This Light shimmers with grace as a drunk young woman hits a Native American man on a desolate Montana road, a grieving slave murders the white child she nurses and loves, and two throwaway kids dance in the twinkling lights of a Christmas tree in a stranger’s house. Thon’s searing prose reveals that the radiant heat inside us all is the hope and hunger for love.
In This Light shimmers with grace as a drunk young woman hits a Native American man on a desolate Montana road, a grieving slave murders the white child she nurses and loves, and two throwaway kids dance in the twinkling lights of a Christmas tree in a stranger’s house. Thon’s searing prose reveals that the radiant heat inside us all is the hope and hunger for love.
List Price
$16.00
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About the Author
Credit: Andi Olsen
Praise
- “Haunting and superb.”—The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), Grade: A
- “[In This Light] captures Thon at her tough, unremittingly intense, unflinching best. . . . Her words can be fiercely poetic or streaked with mysticism. . . . [These are] bluntly powerful but deeply nuanced stories from a unique voice in American fiction.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review
- “Violated bodies, nightmarish history—[Thon’s] words light the path to blame. One by one, Thon takes down authorities—the fathers, slave owners, rapists who change and destroy lives. Thon is not afraid of the minutiae of damage—the innards, the fears or the moments of redemption.”—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
- “A collection of harshly honest stories by an underappreciated writer.”—Dan Kois, New York Magazine
