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Staff Pick
Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s debut novel is a vibrant tale of the West, and what connects — and divides — families across generations. Each character is infused with perspective and rich detail, resulting in a canvas so saturated that the novel teems with life and love. Recommended By Keith M., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
A dazzling epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina
"Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you're swimming under a big, sparkling night sky." Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You
ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022 — The Millions, Electric Lit, Lit Hub, Book Riot
There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.
Luz "Little Light" Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors' origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.
Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine's singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love — filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.
Review
"Pure, simple, and luminescent….There are no other words to describe Fajardo-Anstine's Woman of Light; a brilliant conflagration of a story that opens the eyes and inflames the heart." Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series
Review
"A rare and wondrous kind of novel that assembles the universe from mere words, whose unforgettable characters haunt like long shadows in the southwestern light." Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success
Review
"Fajardo-Anstine brings to life in sensory-rich details….a lush, immersive historical novel." Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Kali Fajardo-Anstine is the author of Sabrina & Corina, a finalist for the National Book Award, the PEN/Robert W.Bingham Prize, The Story Prize, and winner of an American Book Award. She is the 2021 recipient of the Addison M. Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has been honored with the Denver Mayor's Global Impact Award for Excellence in Arts & Culture and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Book Award for Fiction. She has written for The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, The American Scholar, Boston Review, and elsewhere, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and Tin House. Fajardo-Anstine holds an MFA from the University of Wyoming and has lived across the country, from Durango, Colorado, to Key West, Florida. She is the 2022-2023 Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University. She is from Denver, Colorado.