The Blind Light

Named a Best Historical Fiction of 2020 Pick by the New York Times A multigenerational story about two families bound together by the tides of history and the bittersweet complexity of love. England, 1959: two young soldiers―Drummond and Carter―form an intense and unlikely friendship at "Doom Town," a training center that recreates the aftermath of atomic warfare. The experience will haunt them the rest of their lives. Years later, Carter, now a high-ranking government official, offers working-class Drummond a way to protect himself and his wife, Gwen, should a nuclear strike occur. Their pact, kept secret, will have devastating consequences for the families they so wish to shield. The Blind Light is a grand, ambitious novel that spans decades, from the 1950s to the present. Told from the perspectives of Drum and Gwen, and later their children, Nate and Anneka, the story brilliantly captures the tenderness and envy of long relationships. As the families attempt to reform themselves, the pressures of the past are visited devastatingly on the present, affecting spouses, siblings, and friends. Stuart Evers writes with literary flair and intellect without ever abandoning the pleasures and emotional intensity of great storytelling. He explores the psychological legacy of nuclear war and social inequality yet finds a delicate beauty in the adventure of making a life in the ruins of the one you lived before.

About the Author :
A former bookseller, Stuart Evers is the award-winning author of Your Father Sends His Love, Ten Stories About Smoking, the acclaimed novel If This Is Home, and, most recently, The Blind Light. He lives in London.

Review :
"Narrator Matthew Lloyd Davies creates a detailed portrait of postwar Britain. He brings to life characters of both genders and varied classes and ages, giving them all appropriate accents and emotional resonance. However, the characters Davies so expertly portrays appear to lack critical thinking ability, perspective, or compassion. While this novel captures the tensions of its era, and even its existential horrors, none of the characters are commendable. This is a new picture of "Britishness" that does away with stereotypes." -AudioFile Magazine "The Blind Light is a page-perfect and impeccably structured portrait of Britain's troubled, post-nuclear generations, and the pressures which have both tugged them apart and cemented them together. Stuart Evers has written a powerful and affecting novel which excels at being as true to Family and the personal as it is to Nation and the universal, a rare and potent combination." -Jim Crace "One is taken both by the breadth of vision and the depth of character on offer in Stuart Evers' stunning The Blind Light. Rarely does a novel of this scope sing with such brio at the level of the sentence while searing so emphatically in the region of the heart. This is an achievement to be admired and, frankly, envied. My hat is off." -Laird Hunt, author of The Evening Road "A thoroughly absorbing novel which illuminates the nature of friendship and family while offering a compelling portrait of Britain. I loved it." -Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love "A thoughtful and powerful study of the corrosive effects of fear, the damage we do to ourselves and our loved ones when danger is all we can see. Right now that story feels disconcertingly timely." -Clare Clark, Guardian "[E]ngrossing...with its slow burn, Evers's vivid, perceptive chronicle of secrets and desperation satisfies." -Publishers Weekly