The Sunlit Night - Softcover

Refreshing debut ... The author is a poet so the prose is, not surprisingly, lyrical but it's observant and witty, too. What made the novel special for me was the striking sense of place and effortless evocation of grief that push the two central characters towards each other * Daily Mail * Lyrical as a poem, psychologically rich as a thriller, funny, dark, warm, and as knowing of place as any travel book or memoir, The Sunlit Night marks the appearance of a brave talent * Jonathan Safran Foer * A beautifully poetic novel about loneliness, growing apart from one's parents and first loves ... filled with Norse folklore, magic and wonder * Sunday Telegraph * Funny, sad and sharply observed, it's a tale of an unlikely relationship played out in a Viking museum, with a supporting cast of intriguing characters * Psychologies * Subjects of grief, displacement and abandonment are sensitively explored in this wise and affecting drama * Image Magazine * A playful, arresting and enchanting new voice * Liz Jensen * Dinerstein has done readers a big favor not only by writing this luminous story about love, family, and the bewilderment of being young but also by bringing them into an otherworldly setting: a nightless Arctic summer on the spectacular Lofoten Islands. Enchanting in every way * Maggie Shipstead, author of Astonish Me * By turns ravishing and hilarious, The Sunlit Night is more than a shining debut - it's the work of a young master. Dinerstein writes of her two lovers with sensitivity and chutzpah: human drama, a nightless summer, the transformative power of nature. Here's an exciting new voice that sings perfectly in key * Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life * Lush and compelling * Grazia * Dinerstein's ardour for Norway and its ancient legends infuses her luminous first novel ... Dinerstein brings a contagious wonder to her storytelling, transporting the reader to fishing villages and rocky fjords beneath a bright dome of sky * O, the Oprah Magazine * Not your average beach bag lit, but we were still captured instantly! Eerie, enchanting and stunningly written - we hope there's a part two! * Best * Will doubtless find appreciative readers. Dinerstein shares her pleasure in the light and especially the colours of the Arctic summer. The settings, from New York to the island art museum and the disused mental hospital where Frances stays to pain, are appealing ... animals are unusually well written -- Sarah Moss * Guardian * This darkly charming debut novel takes a thoughtful look at the uncertainty of young adulthood ... Dinerstein's prose is detailed, and keeps the novel grounded as the characters face the arctic summer's end * New Yorker * Extraordinarily captivating ... Lyrical, often darkly funny ... All this is told against the extraordinary backdrop of sun-filled, endless Norwegian days, of the unique and striking colours that seep out and shine through Dinerstein's vibrant, precise, sun-splashed prose ... This is a compassionate novel * Irish Times *

Frances had read of a man who painted with only the colour yellow. He lived in the north of Norway. In the beautiful, barren landscape of the Far North, under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other. Their lives have been upended - Frances has fled heartbreak and claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony; Yasha, a Russian immigrant raised in a bakery in Brighton Beach, arrives from Brooklyn to fulfill his beloved father's last wish: to be buried `at the top of the world'. They have come to learn how to be alone. But in Lofoten, an archipelago of six tiny islands in the Norwegian Sea, ninety-five miles north of the Arctic Circle, they form a bond that fortifies them against the turmoil of their distant homes, offering solace amidst great uncertainty. With nimble and sure-footed prose enriched with humour and warmth, Rebecca Dinerstein's enchanting debut reminds us that no matter how far we travel to claim our own territory, it is love that gives us our place in the world.