Days of Light

Hunter’s beautiful latest (after The End We Start From) captures a woman’s life in snapshots from six days across six decades. The novel begins on a fateful Easter Sunday in 1938, when 19-year-old Ivy enjoys an evening of dancing with her family and guests, including her parents’ friend Bear and her brother Joseph’s new girlfriend, Frances. As the party winds down, the siblings head to the river for their first swim of the season. While in the cold water, Ivy spots a large swell of light dancing through the sky and is so absorbed in watching it that she doesn’t see Joseph disappear. A few weeks later, the family holds a funeral for Joseph despite never having found his body. With emotions running high, Ivy and Bear have clandestine sex during the funeral. On the third day, in 1944, Ivy and Bear are married with two small children, and a blissful afternoon shared with Frances and her child turns into a terrible war-torn night when Ivy’s childhood home is bombed. Spinning an intricate narrative web, Hunter reveals how the characters’ actions have lasting consequences, and she ties the story together with Ivy’s lingering questions about Joseph’s fate, which lead her to seek answers from psychics, seances, and the church. Readers will be rapt. Agent: Emma Paterson, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (June)