From the Publisher
Jiles’s prose is a striking match for the barren landscape of this moody adventure tale.” — Publishers Weekly on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
“A remarkably engaging story. . . . Jiles’s description is memorable and evocative.” — Denver Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
“[A] meticulously researched and beautifully crafted story . . . this is glorious work.” — Washington Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
“A gripping, deeply relevant book.” — New York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
“A rousing, character-driven tale.” — Kirkus Reviews on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
“Jiles’ spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality.” — Seattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
“Lighthouse Island is a beacon of hope for Nadia, the clever, resourceful young heroine of Paulette Jiles’ spellbinding new novel. . . . Jiles’ writing is crisp and vivid as always, and although her setting is vastly different, her themes—independence, individuality, love of the land—remain intact.” — San Antonio Express-News on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
“Nadia’s wandering journey maintains that hopeful anticipation of deep sleep. . . Jiles (Color of Lightening; Stormy Weather) has created a fascinating dystopic vision of a future world.” — Library Journal on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
“The dystopian novel is beautifully written, and Jiles’ scenes of [protagonist] Nadia navigating the crumbling cityscape and her surreal interactions with the many desperate characters are vivid, shocking and often darkly funny.” — Columbus Dispatch on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
“[I]nventive futurism and rollicking wit.” — New York Times Book Review on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
Washington Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
[A] meticulously researched and beautifully crafted story . . . this is glorious work.
New York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
A gripping, deeply relevant book.
Denver Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
A remarkably engaging story. . . . Jiles’s description is memorable and evocative.
Columbus Dispatch on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
The dystopian novel is beautifully written, and Jiles’ scenes of [protagonist] Nadia navigating the crumbling cityscape and her surreal interactions with the many desperate characters are vivid, shocking and often darkly funny.
San Antonio Express-News on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
Lighthouse Island is a beacon of hope for Nadia, the clever, resourceful young heroine of Paulette Jiles’ spellbinding new novel. . . . Jiles’ writing is crisp and vivid as always, and although her setting is vastly different, her themes—independence, individuality, love of the land—remain intact.
Seattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
Jiles’ spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality.
New York Times Book Review on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
[I]nventive futurism and rollicking wit.
Kirkus Reviews
A quest novel set in the future, when America has become a vast megalopolis divided into "Gerrymanders" and water is a scarce resource in a new "Drought Age." At the age of 4, Raisa is abandoned by her parents and taken to an orphanage. She officially becomes a PD--a Parentless Dependent--and is given a new name, Nadia Stepan. Although she has an eye condition that temporarily renders her blind, Nadia learns from television (which pervades the culture, along with Big Radio) about Lighthouse Island, a land presented as a Utopian refuge from all that ails the vast city that America has turned into. It's presented as a place of "no buildings, no water rationing, only landforms, and random plants, fossils, silence, solitude, [and] mountains...." We also learn of James Orotov, a paraplegic meteorologist and demolitions expert fascinated by geography, whose maps lead to suspicions of his being guilty of "[c]artographical treason." Nadia eventually grows up and becomes adept at lying as a survival technique, and when Oversupervisor Blanche Warren discovers that she has had an affair with Blanche's husband, Nadia decides to escape by going to Lighthouse Island. Eventually, her path crosses with James', and he explains to her the vastness--and perhaps impossibility--of her undertaking. Nadia and James in due course fall in love and get married--and help each other on the long journey north to Lighthouse Island. When they arrive, they find it's scarcely the Utopia it's cracked up to be. Jiles writes beautifully but paces the novel glacially.
