Product details
Biographical note
Stuart Evers’ debut, Ten Stories About Smoking, won the London Book Award in 2011; his highly acclaimed novel If This is Home followed in 2012 and his collection Your Father Sends His Love was shortlisted for the 2016 Edge Hill Short Story Prize. In 2017, Evers won the Eccles British Library Writer’s Award – one of Europe’s richest prizes for a work in progress. His work has appeared in three editions of the Best British Short Stories, as well as Granta, the White Review, Prospect and on Radio 4. The Blind Light is his second novel. Originally from the North West, he lives in London.<b>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 </b>. . . disconcertingly timely
Guardian
<b>A panoramic novel of modern Britain</b> . . .<b> extraordinary</b>
Spectator
<i>The Blind Light </i><b>reads like a British Don DeLillo</b>, telling the social history of Britain through two generations of a family
- Alex Preston, <i>Observer</i>,
<b>Engrossing</b> . . . A<b> terrific </b>book
- Samira Ahmed, BBC Radio 4,
<b>Evers excels in his close examination of relationships</b> . . . the complicated nature of guilt and loss is beautifully handled . . .<b> an absorbing read</b>
Irish Independent
<b>Powerfully imagined</b> . . . <b>multi-threaded, unflinching, and visceral</b>
TLS
A <b>shrewd, timely</b> novel
New York Times
A <b>spellbinding</b> family history, encompassing the personal and the political
The Tablet
<b>Rivals the work of American greats such as Bellow and Franzen</b>
The Week
Evers’s book is a widescreen family saga that examines, among other things, the effect of the nuclear threat during the Cold War on the British psyche . . . <b>it’s absorbing – and uncannily timed</b> in its perversely consoling sense of how crises come and go
Daily Mail
<i>The Blind Light</i> is <b>a page-perfect and impeccably structured portrait of Britain’s troubled, post-nuclear generations</b> . . . Evers has written <b>a powerful and affecting novel</b> 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, author of <i>Harvest</i>,
<b>One is taken both by the breadth of vision and the depth of character on offer</b> in Evers' stunning <i>The Blind Light </i>. . . This is an achievement to be admired and, frankly, envied. My hat is off
- Laird Hunt,
A <b>thoroughly absorbing novel</b> which illuminates the nature of friendship and family while offering a compelling portrait of Britain. I loved it
- Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of <i>The Last Act of Love</i>,
<b>Extraordinarily intense, and intensely well written</b>, the echoes of our current situation are uncomfortably close at hand. A complex and powerful novel
- Lissa Evans, author of <i>Old Baggage</i> and <i>Crooked Heart</i>,
A social history told through 2 generations of the same family. Beautiful & funny & moving. And <b>a hugely hopeful read for our strange new world</b>
- Sarah Franklin, author of <i>Shelter</i>,
<i>The Blind Light</i> is staged on a far grander scale than its predecessor. Submerged currents from the cold war guide the plotline . . . [<b>Lyrical but precise descriptions</b>] are the moments when <i>The Blind Light</i> shines most brightly
Financial Times
A <b>sprawling, absorbing, epic crossing generations</b>
Cumbria Life
<b>S</b><b>ubtle </b>and sombre . . . <b>Love, luck, debts and domestic life play out against a historical backdrop</b> that takes in the Cuban Missile Crisis, strikes, civil unrest and the rise of rave culture
Sunday Express
A spellbinding family saga spanning six decades of British history, shortlisted for the prestigious RSL Encore Award.
As the 1950s draw to a close and the Cold War escalates, the shape of Drummond Moore's life is changed beyond measure when he strikes up an unlikely friendship with James Carter, a rich and well-connected fellow national serviceman. Carter leads him to Doom Town – an army base that seeks to recreate the effects of a nuclear war – where he meets Gwen, a barmaid with whom he shares an instant connection.
Set against the backdrop of Britain from the post-war era to the present day, The Blind Light is a compelling story of love, family, and the far-reaching consequences of personal and political decisions. This extraordinary novel from Stuart Evers follows one family as they navigate the joys, sorrows, and complexities that echo across generations, capturing the essence of a nation in transition. Hailed as ‘powerful’ by the Guardian and ‘extraordinary’ by the Spectator, The Blind Light is a spellbinding work of literary fiction that will resonate long after the final page.