The Sunlit Night

Frances had read of a man who painted with only the colour yellow. He lived in the north of Norway.

In the beautiful, barren landscape of the Far North, under the ever-present midnight sun, Frances and Yasha are surprised to find refuge in each other. Their lives have been upended – Frances has fled heartbreak and claustrophobic Manhattan for an isolated artist colony; Yasha, a Russian immigrant raised in a bakery in Brighton Beach, arrives from Brooklyn to fulfill his beloved father's last wish: to be buried 'at the top of the world'. They have come to learn how to be alone.

But in Lofoten, an archipelago of six tiny islands in the Norwegian Sea, ninety-five miles north of the Arctic Circle, they form a bond that fortifies them against the turmoil of their distant homes, offering solace amidst great uncertainty. With nimble and sure-footed prose enriched with humour and warmth, Rebecca Dinerstein's enchanting debut reminds us that no matter how far we travel to claim our own territory, it is love that gives us our place in the world.

“Lyrical as a poem, psychologically rich as a thriller, funny, dark, warm, and as knowing of place as any travel book or memoir, The Sunlit Night marks the appearance of a brave talent” –  Jonathan Safran Foer

“A beautifully poetic novel about loneliness, growing apart from one's parents and first loves … filled with Norse folklore, magic and wonder” –  Sunday Telegraph

“A playful, arresting and enchanting new voice” –  Liz Jensen

“Dinerstein has done readers a big favor not only by writing this luminous story about love, family, and the bewilderment of being young but also by bringing them into an otherworldly setting: a nightless Arctic summer on the spectacular Lofoten Islands. Enchanting in every way” –  Maggie Shipstead, author of Astonish Me

“By turns ravishing and hilarious, The Sunlit Night is more than a shining debut - it's the work of a young master. Dinerstein writes of her two lovers with sensitivity and chutzpah: human drama, a nightless summer, the transformative power of nature. Here's an exciting new voice that sings perfectly in key” –  Darin Strauss, author of Half a Life