We Are Light
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award
Winner of the 2021 European Union Literature Prize
"A riveting experimental novel about a commune where the members’ belief that they can live on light and love alone proves fatal for one of them." ―Publishers Weekly, starred review
One apartment, three women, one man. One of the women is dead. When the emergency personnel arrive, they realize: Elisabeth starved to death, encouraged by her roommates.
In the middle of a summer night,
Elisabeth, the oldest resident of the Sound & Love Commune, dies. Her
sister Melodie and their two other housemates are arrested: the group’s
attempts to stop eating and start living on light and love alone appears
to have been fatal to Elisabeth. From unworldly idealists on the fringes of
society, the three suddenly become suspects in a criminal case. Through the
eyes of the night, the neighbors, doubt, the scent of an orange, and many other
characters and entities, we see how each of those involved gives a different
answer to the question of how Elisabeth came to die. Who is to blame? And does
the commune still have a future? We Are Light
is a highly original and entertaining novel about manipulation, vulnerability,
and trying to be better.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Blees makes her English language debut with a riveting experimental novel about a commune where the members' belief that they can live on light and love alone proves fatal for one of them. The story is told from many points of view, ranging from the light referenced in the title and other nonhuman perspectives to the commune's neighbors and the police investigating the death as a potential murder. Elisabeth, one of the four members of the Sound & Love Commune, has died from malnourishment. Her younger sister, Melodie, a failed cellist, thinks she's helping the psychologically unstable Petrus and Muriel by encouraging them to continue believing it's possible for them to live without food. The police, disagreeing, arrest the three survivors on charges of murder. Other chapters delve into the reasons why the characters joined the commune. One, narrated by the scent of oranges, recounts the origins of Petrus's distress, showing how as a child he repeatedly found moldy oranges placed by bullies in his school bag. Another, taking the voice of the internet, portrays a guru named Maruko who influenced the group with his "nine day process" meant to "liberate oneself from food." Blees maintains a brisk pace as the investigation unfolds and her troubled characters come to distinctive life. This is a winner.
