Grove Press, Black Cat
Blue Light Hours
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"Astonishingly beautiful . . . It's a revelation."--Jenny Offill, New York Times bestselling author of Weather
From the National Book Award-winning translator, an atmospheric and wise debut novel of a young Brazilian woman's first year in America, a continent away from her lonely mother, and the relationship they build over Skype calls across borders
In a small dorm room at a liberal arts college in Vermont, a young woman settles into the warm blue light of her desk lamp before calling the mother she left behind in northeastern Brazil. Four thousand miles apart and bound by the angular confines of a Skype window, they ask each other a simple question: what's the news?
Offscreen, little about their lives seems newsworthy. The daughter writes her papers in the library at midnight, eats in the dining hall with the other international students, and raises her hand in class to speak in a language the mother cannot understand. The mother meanwhile preoccupies herself with natural disasters, her increasingly poor health, and the heartbreaking possibility that her daughter might not return to the apartment where they have always lived together. Yet in the blue glow of their computers, the two women develop new rituals of intimacy and caretaking, from drinking whiskey together in the middle of the night to keeping watch as one slides into sleep. As the warm colors of New England autumn fade into an endless winter snow, each realizes that the promise of spring might mean difficult endings rather than hopeful beginnings.
Expanded from a story originally published in The New Yorker, and in elegant prose that recalls the work of Sigrid Nunez, Katie Kitamura, and Rachel Khong, Bruna Dantas Lobato paints a powerful portrait of a mother and a daughter coming of age together and apart and explores the profound sacrifices and freedoms that come with leaving a home to make a new one somewhere else.
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Book Details
ISBN:
9780802163776
EAN:
9780802163776
Binding:
Paperback
Pages:
192
Authors:
Bruna Dantas Lobato
Publisher:
Grove Press, Black Cat
Published Date: 2024-15-10
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Haunting, Intense, and BeautifulI read this novella in one day and enjoyed it. The first part is from the point of view of a young woman who left her home in Brazil to attend college in Vermont, leaving home for the first time.This book is about the relationship between the daughter and the mother—and the daughter’s experience in college and her world, which is expanding. The mother’s world is not expanding; it seems to be contracting, folding in on itself by the weight of loneliness.The writing is sparse and beautiful—and truly reflects the lives of the characters. The daughter’s room is sparse, because she doesn’t have money to buy things the way others in her cohort do. And it reflects the sparseness of the mother’s life without her daughter.The mother keeps holding onto the daughter in ways that seemed unhealthy to me. I kept screaming, sometimes out loud, “Just let her live her life at college; let her blossom!” But I say this as someone whose US born parents allowed me to do that. And that was my approach when my son when to college and grad school. But that is likely an opinion that is based on privileged and a US lived experience.Notice the lights—the blue lights—at key points.I enjoyed this book and am glad I read it, thanks to NetGalley. I reviewed it on my TikTok channel, @katemcreader.
This is a profoundly moving, utterly beautiful book. I smiled and cried my way through it. Anyone who has, or has had, a beloved mother, will relate to, and be touched by, this novel. And I hope that anyone who does NOT have a good relationship with their mother (or daughter, for that matter), will be inspired to try to mend that relationship and give it a chance.
If homesickness was a book, it’s Blue Light Hours. Throughout the entire book the yearning was palpable, and anyone who has ever left something behind to pursue something else can place themselves into this narrative. This mood-driven narrative explores a geographically distant mother/daughter relationship, with themes of growing independence, navigating academic pressures, and familial sacrifice. This story was so intimate and bittersweet; it’s one that will stick with me for awhile.Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC
A daughter and a mother use their frequent live chats on Skype to maintain their relationship and to navigate the lonely waters they both find themselves in after the daughter leaves home (Brazil) to go and study in the US (Vermont).Although the daughter is lonely and has to find her feet in this new world we see no sign of her going back home, not even for a visit. Money is a problem yes but I felt that there was more underneath, it felt like she did not want to go back, why? Pity it wasn't examined, I would have liked that.Thank you to the publisher for my copy.
Read this amazing book in one sitting (during jury duty lol). It is a special story about a mother and a daughter. Where is home? And what happens when you leave it physically? Loved it!!!
