A Scatter of Light - from the author of Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Hardcover)

'Beautifully rendered and instantly captivating. Malinda Lo writes queer desire like no other.' DIVA MAGAZINE 'Lo writes tenderly about the first buds of teenage desire amid a downtown hipster at scene.' DAILY MAIL 'Poignant, vivid and so beautifully written. I adored it.' LAURA KAY A Scatter of Light is a companion novel to the National Book Awards winner and New York Times bestseller Last Night at the Telegraph Club, and is about how the threads of family, inspiration, art, and identity are woven across generations. Aria Tang West thought she'd be spending one last summer on Martha's Vineyard with her friends before starting MIT in the fall, where she intends to study astronomy, like her late grandfather. But after topless photos of her are posted online, she's abruptly uninvited from her friends' summer homes. Aria's parents, a writer and opera singer with plans of their own, send Aria to stay with her artist grandmother, Joan West, in Northern California. Although Aria has never been attracted to girls before, she finds herself drawn to Joan's gardener, Steph Nichols, an aspiring musician a few years older than Aria. The only problem? Steph isn't single; she lives with her girlfriend, Lisa. But the chemistry between Aria and Steph seems undeniable, and this will be a summer that will turn her world upside down.

General

Imprint:	Coronet Books
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	October 2022
First published:	2022
Authors:	Malinda Lo
Dimensions:	236 x 158 x 36mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	336
ISBN-13:	978-1-399-70653-7
Categories:	Books > Fiction > General & literary fiction > Modern fiction Promotions
LSN:	1-399-70653-5
Barcode:	9781399706537

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Review This Product

Quiet, devastating and powerful

Mon, 2 Jan 2023 | Review by: Penny O.

A Scatter of Light follows Aria West, a teenage girl who has just graduated from high school and who has been sent to stay with her grandmother for the summer after a humiliating incident involving nude pictures going viral. She is not happy about this change of summer plans, as she had hoped to spend the summer on Martha's Vinyard with her two best friends. Then she meets Steph, her grandmother's gardener, and Steph's friends, and discovers a part of herself that she had not known existed. Set during the summer that gay marriage was legalized in California, A Scatter of Light is a queer coming-of-age story with well-developed characters, difficult emotions and complex relationships. Themes explored are those of art, identity, sexuality, memory, grief and the passage of time. I loved the relationship between Aria and her artist grandmother Joan, who finds herself always making art about time. A Scatter of Light is quiet, bittersweet, devastating and beautifully written. What makes it even more powerful is that it is from the Aria's perspective ten years in the future. Although described as a companion novel to Last Night at the Telegraph Club, these books can be read as standalones. However, reading both allows one to see the evolution of LBGTQ+ rights between the 1950s and 2013 from the perspectives of members of the same family, and to feel the passage of time even more profoundly.

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