The Valley of Light
A Novel
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
A lyrical and poignant gift from one of America's great storytellers.
On a sunny summer day in 1948, Noah Locke arrives in Bowerstown, a small North Carolina community bordered by lakes and set deep in the Valley of Light. A quiet, simple man and a war veteran, Noah has a mystical gift for fishing, yet he remains haunted by the war and by the terrible scenes he witnessed when his infantry unit liberated Dachau. His wandering -- doing odd jobs and catching fish for sale or trade -- is both an escape from his past and a search for a place to call home.
In the valley, Noah is initially treated with amusement by the locals he meets at Taylor Bowers's general store -- until he begins fishing. Once they see his almost magical skills, however, he becomes the talk of the valley and is urged to stay long enough to participate in the annual school fishing contest. He agrees, accepting a job offer by Taylor to paint his store when he isn't filling orders for fish. He finds lodging in an abandoned shack by a small lake the locals call the Lake of Grief and, also, the Lake of No Fish, because they think all the fish have disappeared. Noah knows they are wrong. Beneath the water is a warrior bass waiting to test Noah's gift.
In the way that innocence creates powerful events, Noah meets Eleanor Cunningham, a young widow whose husband supposedly killed himself after returning home from the war. Over the course of a week, Noah will be led into the secret lives of the residents of the Valley of Light, will join them as they mourn a tragedy, and will experience a miracle that will guide him home at last.
Luminous, memorable, and deeply moving, The Valley of Light is the finest work to date from a brilliant storyteller.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An enigmatic young man's preternatural gift for fishing changes the fabric of a rural North Carolina village during the post-WWII years in Kay's latest, a dreamy, poignant and richly written novel, marred somewhat by slow pacing. Noah Locke, a quiet, earnest veteran from Georgia, arrives in Bowerton, called by some the Valley of Light, and quickly becomes known for his fishing skills; the welcoming locals promptly invite him to participate in their upcoming fishing contest. He settles in, earning his keep as a housepainter, and soon meets Eleanor Cunningham, a comely young widow whose husband died, an apparent suicide, after coming home from the war. Their romance develops hesitantly, largely due to Noah's shyness, and while Kay pens some lovely scenes of rural life, the narrative doesn't move much faster. Before the contest commences, a young boy whom Noah had befriended goes missing and, after several agonizing days, Noah finds the body. He realizes that the boy died trying to catch a legendary fish that Noah himself had been chasing, after hearing about it from a benevolent but mysterious old man. Kay's lush descriptions form a shimmering backdrop to his gracefully drawn protagonists, but the romance is somewhat predictable, and the fishing subplot the search for a mythic bass does not fully sustain narrative tension. Kay (To Dance with a White Dog) comes close to generating suspense in the chapters describing the questionable conduct of Eleanor's husband following the war, but it's too bad there isn't a more compelling plot to anchor the graceful writing.
