Sunlight

“How odd, she reflected, to need to protect ourselves against something we cannot live without, the sun; something millions of miles away yet can harm us. Even kill us . . .”

This innovatively crafted novel tracks the lives of a girl and boy who as next-door neighbors and lifelong friends confront sunlight in a way that wins the attention of the federal government at its highest levels and impacts modern aviation. Both of them face adversities threatening but not derailing their life quests, while readers take a fact-driven flight with them that begins in a tiny hamlet in rural New Jersey and touches down in the Colorado Rockies, war-torn Vietnam, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Arizona, Maryland, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the Oval Office of the President of the United States.

Sunlight spans the half-century-plus from 1946 to 2001, recounting real events of that tumultuous era through fictional characters so realistic and credible that readers may need to remind themselves they are holding a novel. Shining throughout is the author’s skill, honed during decades as a trial lawyer, at weaving an engrossing plot tapestry threaded with flying both in combat and for sport, as well as dreams and romance, success and tragedy, triumph and misgivings, lessons both taught and learned.