Light the Way

Sisterhood is stronger than secrets.

The breakout novel from "formidable talent" (Ann Patchett) Monica West, a heart-wrenching coming-of-age novel about a young woman who follows her missing older sister into a cult in a courageous attempt to set them both free.

One ordinary night, Ramona Oliver's older sister Maya disappeared without a trace. 

Four years later, following an unlikely lead on her sister’s whereabouts, Ramona finds herself at The Way, the home of a mysterious all-female, Northern California religious community led by a charismatic guru named Shepherd. She immerses herself in life on the land, living and working alongside a community of women, including her sister. Soon, she uncovers unsettling questions about her family and becomes seduced by the utopia Shepherd promises. By the time Ramona realizes that this place isn’t what she thought it could be, she must save herself—and her sister—before it’s too late. But what if Maya is too far gone to be saved?

In exquisite, precise prose, Monica West takes readers from the claustrophobic apartment where the girls were both raised and neglected, to the bounty of an old farm that seems limitless in its freedoms and in its restrictions. Light the Way is about the longing for the perfect family, about hope and perseverance in the face of impossible odds, about the bravery that young women must harness over and over again, simply to survive this world.