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Absolutely stunning ... A gorgeous writer of rare honesty and wit.
— Boston Globe
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Melodic, penetrating ... [Girl in the Dark] reveals the quiet, ingenious consciousness of a poet. Anna Lyndsey is both close observer and philosopher, capable of describing her world and also of pondering what it signifies.
— The New York Times Book Review
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What stays with the reader is [Lyndsey's] gutsiness, her imagination and fortitude. She doesn’t give up, but keeps looking for ways to stay sharp.
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
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[Girl in the Dark] sparkles with dark humour and wonder at the world … beautifully affecting … A tribute to the power of humanity, generosity and endurance, Girl in the Dark is incredibly powerful stuff.
— The Guardian
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An extraordinary memoir … Girl In The Dark is beautifully written. The author’s intelligence shines on every page, and her will to survive (despite those black thoughts in her dark room) is inspiring.
— Daily Mail
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Deeply affecting ... Working gingerly with the array of metaphors that emerge from darkness and offering small, telling details, Lyndsey achieves a powerful assertion of self against the eclipse of all that she used to hold dear in the realm of light.
— Publishers Weekly
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The premise of Girl in the Dark seems lifted out of a Gothic novel: a woman whose flesh is burned by light is confined to a dark box of a room. But this story is so much more than a medical mystery or a nightmarishly true tale. I read this book, a memoir that reads like an epic poem, pen in hand, feverishly underlining sentence after sentence. Yes, life is suffering, but in the end, as Anna Lyndsey so aptly puts it, ‘Words are wonderful.’ This book is a gift, a testament to the power of art as a saving grace.
— Susannah Cahalan, author of the New York Times-bestselling Brain on Fire
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In this astonishing memoir Anna Lyndsey takes us into the world of a rare and shocking illness, and we emerge awed by a shining love story. Anna writes with such honesty and grace and mischief about how her condition forces her to retreat into blackness—yet we see that this new space she so bravely creates for herself is suffused with light.
— Sonali Deraniyagala, author of Wave, winner of the PEN/Ackerly Prize and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
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It takes courage to heal, to step outside and want to feel the full magnificence of the sun. Taking that journey with a writer of such rare gifts as Anna Lyndsey is pure pleasure.
— Christa Parravani, author of Her
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“[With] melodic, penetrating prose…its paragraphs reveal the quiet, ingenious consciousness of a poet. Anna Lyndsey is both close observer and philosopher, capable of describing her world and also of pondering what it signifies.”
— New York Times Book Review
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“What stays with the reader is [Lyndsey’s] gutsiness, her imagination and fortitude. She doesn’t give up, but keeps looking for ways to stay sharp.”
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
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“In this deeply affecting work…Lyndsey moves the reader with her wry, intimately detailed narrative…Working gingerly with the array of metaphors that emerge from darkness and offering small, telling details, Lyndsey achieves a powerful assertion of self against the eclipse of all that she used to hold dear in the realm of light. Her work is especially gripping because there is no cure for or reversal to her condition.”
— Publishers Weekly
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“As much as the book is about coping with a life-altering condition, it is also a quiet love story that celebrates a relationship that not only withstood the ups and downs of Lyndsey’s medical struggles but also deepened in the process. A unique and haunting story.”
— Kirkus Reviews