Light: A Novel - Softcover

Elphinstone, Margaret

3.63

123 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841958808 ISBN 13: 9781841958804

Publisher: Canongate U.S., 2007

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Set on a tiny island off the Isle of Man in 1831, Light is a family drama that reads like a pulse-pounding thriller. Sisters-in-law Lucy and Diya are raising their children together far from prying Victorian eyes, even as they dread the day the outside world will come to their island. That invasion arrives in the form of a surveyor and his assistant, sent to the remote outpost because a new lighthouse must be built and, according to custom of the time, a man must be found to replace the current lighthouse keeper, Lucy. That Lucy does a man’s job and Diya turns out to be a highly educated Indian woman shocks and confuses the men, but soon romance blossoms. Faced with banishment from the only home she’d ever known, Diya’s hot-headed daughter attempts a terrible act that may lead the family to ruin. With an assured eye for capturing the alien beauty of the island, Margaret Elphinstone creates an empathetic and compassionate tale of two singular women coming to terms with a sea change in their lives.

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About the Author:

Margaret Elphinstone teaches at the Department of English Studies at Strathclyde University.

From Booklist:

Sisters-in-law Lucy and Diya have three children between them and live on the remote island of Ellan Bride off the Isle of Man in 1831. Ever since Diya's husband died, Lucy has lit the lamps and polished the reflectors in the lighthouse, whose beam saves an untold number of sailors' lives every year in the treacherous seawaters. But new technology has brought Archie Buchanan, an ambitious surveyor, and his hardworking assistant, Ben Groat, to the tiny island to scope out a project for building a new lighthouse. The women are frightened about what the change means for their future, while the children, at first nervous in the presence of strangers, are intrigued by their equipment and far-ranging conversations, which provide glimpses of the outside world. Then Diya's strong-willed daughter provokes a crisis by attempting to lead Archie astray on a remote footpath. In this moving depiction of a close-knit family learning to navigate overwhelming change, Elphinstone also brings alive the stark beauty of the island through her graceful, finely detailed descriptions of the wildlife and landscape. Joanne Wilkinson
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