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Published Aug 2021
432 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
From the award-winning author of The Serpent King comes a beautiful examination of grief, found family, and young love.
Life in a small Appalachian town is not easy. Cash lost his mother to an opioid addiction and his Papaw is dying slowly from emphysema. Dodging drug dealers and watching out for his best friend, Delaney, is second nature. He's been spending his summer mowing lawns while she works at Dairy Queen.
But when Delaney manages to secure both of them full rides to an elite prep school in Connecticut, Cash will have to grapple with his need to protect and love Delaney, and his love for the grandparents who saved him and the town he would have to leave behind.
"After discovering a bacteria-eating mold in a local cave, two high school sophomores are offered full scholarships to a prestigious academy in Zentner's tender novel of love and loss...well-crafted poems throughout, written by Cash as he finds his voice, are evocative and moving, highlighting Zentner's impressive skill with both poetry and prose." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Zentner shows respectful care for his characters; natural dialogue and a strongly developed sense of place demonstrate their evolution. The beauty of the language will invite readers to linger over sentences that speak to deep truths. A brilliant treasure of a book that holds up a mirror to the best parts of our humanity." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Heartfelt and deeply moving...a book that readers will unhesitatingly take to their hearts." - Booklist (starred review)
"A wise, gorgeous exploration of loss and survival that will make readers cry...Lyrical and heartbreaking." - School Library Journal (starred review)
"Zentner's signature poetic prose is in full effect as he crafts sentences that read like sweet tea tastes and cotton feels...In the Wild Light is a love letter to possibility." - Bookpage
"Vitally redefines friendship as something that must be protected, sacrificed for, and tended to with wisdom, patience, and love—and, to our luck, rendered in Zentner's gem-like sentences." - Ocean Vuong, New York Times bestselling author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
"In a word: sublime. This gift of a book will leave you with fiery, incandescent hope in your chest." - Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read
"A novel with the soul of a poem. Jeff Zentner proves yet again that he's one of the most luminous voices writing for young people today." - Randy Ribay, author of National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing
This information about In the Wild Light was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jeff Zentner is the author of New York Times Notable Book The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, and Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee. He has won the William C. Morris Award, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, the International Literacy Association Award, and the Westchester Fiction Award. He's a two-time Southern Book Prize finalist, been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and UKLA, and was a finalist for the Indies Choice Award. He was selected as a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and an Indies Introduce pick. His books have been translated into fifteen languages. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
He came to writing through music, starting his creative life as a guitarist and eventually ...
... Full Biography
Author Interview
Link to Jeff Zentner's Website
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