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A review by snoakes7001
The Sunlight Pilgrims by Jenni Fagan
5.0
The Sunlight Pilgrims is a beautiful and insightful novel.
Set in the winter of 2020/21 - the most extreme winter for 200 years, it tells the story of Constance, her daughter Stella and their neighbours Dylan.
Constance is a resourceful and intelligent woman - well-known in the area for having two lovers - and for not giving a hoot what anyone thinks of her for it.
Stella is a transgender girl struggling with all the usual teenage issues, hugely compounded by the onset of her male puberty. Her determination to be accepted as her true self, and her frustration at everything having to be a battle is a central theme.
Dylan is grieving for his mother and grandmother who both recently died. The arthouse cinema the family ran together has gone to the wall, and so he winds up at the caravan park at the edge of the world where Constance and Stella live.
As winter's grip increases on the land, the weather almost becomes a character in its own right; the plummeting temperature, the drifts of snow and huge icicles all contribute to an increasingly claustrophobic and every setting.
It's a delightful story, sensitively told - it may be early in the year, but I know this will be one of my favourite reads of 2018. Any book that gets you Googling meteorological phenomena has got to be winner.
Set in the winter of 2020/21 - the most extreme winter for 200 years, it tells the story of Constance, her daughter Stella and their neighbours Dylan.
Constance is a resourceful and intelligent woman - well-known in the area for having two lovers - and for not giving a hoot what anyone thinks of her for it.
Stella is a transgender girl struggling with all the usual teenage issues, hugely compounded by the onset of her male puberty. Her determination to be accepted as her true self, and her frustration at everything having to be a battle is a central theme.
Dylan is grieving for his mother and grandmother who both recently died. The arthouse cinema the family ran together has gone to the wall, and so he winds up at the caravan park at the edge of the world where Constance and Stella live.
As winter's grip increases on the land, the weather almost becomes a character in its own right; the plummeting temperature, the drifts of snow and huge icicles all contribute to an increasingly claustrophobic and every setting.
It's a delightful story, sensitively told - it may be early in the year, but I know this will be one of my favourite reads of 2018. Any book that gets you Googling meteorological phenomena has got to be winner.