Young Light

Paints a delicate portrait of a twelve-year-old boy named Julian growing up in a mining community in 1960s Germany.

First Light covers only a few summer weeks, following young Julian’s gradual social and sexual awakening amidst his parent’s financial and marital problems. Avoiding any overt drama in the description of his predicaments and observations, Rothmann instead creates a quiet sense of hope and new beginnings. His subtle, restrained prose captures the unarticulated, yet increasingly ...