A gripping coming-of-age novel with a murder at its heart and a heroine as unforgettable as Harper Lee’s Scout
Light from a Distant Star is the moving and powerful story of innocence and betrayal told in the endearingly wise voice of thirteen-year-old Nellie Peck. It is early summer, and her beloved father’s business is failing. Her mother has to go back to work, and Nellie’s older half sister has launched a troubling search for her birth father. Forced to take care of her shy younger brother, Nellie is determined to make him—and herself—toughen up. Three strangers enter Nellie’s protected life: mysterious and brutish Max Devaney works in her grandfather’s junkyard, the thieving Bucky Saltonstall has just arrived from New York City, and Dolly Bedelia, a young stripper who rents the small apartment in the back of the Pecks’ house, becomes the titillating focus of Nellie’s eavesdropping.
Nellie is justly proud of her own infallible lie detector until violence erupts in her young life and she is silenced by fear and scandal. The truth as she believes it is shocking and unthinkable, and with everyone’s eyes riveted on her in the courtroom, Nellie finds herself compromised by moral confusion. No one will listen, no one believes her, and a man’s life hangs in the balance.
A stunning evocation of innocence lost, Light from a Distant Star stands as one of the most engaging novels yet from the bestselling author of Songs in Ordinary Time.
Download and start listening now!
"This author does a great job of getting into the mindset of her characters, such amazing writing, very descriptive and it does a wonderful job of creating this setting. She makes me remember what it was like to be a young teen and not understand everything around you, be at the mercy of the adults in your world who make all the rules. She shows how parents can be loving but due to life circumstances are also still human with frailties and can mess up sometimes. I loved the main character, Nellie, a girl who continues to stand up for what she believes in, despite obstacles put in her way. The other people in her family, the characters have so much depth. This a book that is slightly depressing and is not a read if you want fluff. It is a deep book, well worth some thought. It is something that I think will stay with me for a long time. There were parts where you want to just tell the other characters to grow up or where you yearn to wish things could be different for the poor family, but it does a great job of being true to life, very realistic and makes you long for childhood again too."
—
Sophia (4 out of 5 stars)