Woman of Light

'A formidable, necessary voice in fiction' Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising

'Dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical' Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

'A feat of old-school storytelling' The Observer

WINNER OF THE READING THE WEST BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION. LONGLISTED FOR THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE. LONGLISTED FOR THE CAROL SHIELDS PRIZE FOR FICTION.

There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.

Luz "Little Light" Lopez, a tea leaf reader and laundress, is left to fend for herself after her older brother, Diego, a snake charmer and factory worker, is run out of town by a violent white mob. As Luz navigates 1930s Denver, she begins to have visions that transport her to her Indigenous homeland in the nearby Lost Territory. Luz recollects her ancestors' origins, how her family flourished, and how they were threatened. She bears witness to the sinister forces that have devastated her people and their homelands for generations. In the end, it is up to Luz to save her family stories from disappearing into oblivion.

Written in Kali Fajardo-Anstine's singular voice, the wildly entertaining and complex lives of the Lopez family fill the pages of this multigenerational western saga. Woman of Light is a transfixing novel about survival, family secrets, and love-filled with an unforgettable cast of characters, all of whom are just as special, memorable, and complicated as our beloved heroine, Luz.

'Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you're swimming under a big, sparkling night sky' Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere

Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you're swimming under a big, sparkling night sky Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You
An intimate and intensely moving story of a Latinx and Indigenous family in the American West. Kali Fajardo-Anstine's lyrical, unpretentious prose renders the generations of women of this story in all of their complexity, offering a nuanced perspective on how the past can inform the future . . . A formidable, necessary voice in fiction Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Malibu Rising
A fascinatingly rich setting . . . Fajardo-Anstine is brilliant at evoking the everyday resilience of people carrying centuries of history in their souls . . . Woman of Light achieves something very satisfying as a soapy, immersive saga - a feat of old-school storytelling The Observer
With a single phrase, line of dialogue, description, Fajardo-Anstine has the power to accurately express the joy and sadness in a person's life, their history, how the world comes into contact with us, and how we come into contact with the world. . . . Captivating Mieko Kawakami, author of Breasts and Eggs
[A] bewitching debut novel BBC's History magazine
This novel is indelible, and shines its big light on the Lopez family so brightly that I could draw a map of their breath. . . . An absolutely glorious novel Emma Straub, author of All Adults Here
A rare and wondrous kind of novel that assembles the universe from mere words, whose unforgettable characters haunt like long shadows in the southwestern light Gary Shteyngart, author of Lake Success
Pure, simple, and luminescent . . . There are no other words to describe Kali Fajardo-Anstine's Woman of Light; a brilliant conflagration of a story that opens the eyes and inflames the heart Craig Johnson, author of the Longmire series
A cinematic, epic story. Kali Fajardo-Anstine brings her keen understanding of desire, vulnerability, and destiny to this gorgeous reclaiming of lost history Mira Jacob, author of Good Talk
Fajardo-Anstine's storytelling is absolutely engrossing Shondaland
A transporting story of the importance of family history told in a luminescent style Good Housekeeping
A lush, immersive historical novel Kirkus Reviews
An entrancing book about the stories we carry, the ones we need to keep telling. Fajardo-Anstine has given us another stunning cast of characters to root for Lithub
A novel with vast reach Electric Literature
An unparalleled generational saga . . . one of the most potent voices in contemporary Latino and Native American literature BeLatina
Woman of Light is a sweeping family saga, as the Lopez family makes their way back to their generational home. Farjado-Anstine incorporates the culturally significant elements of magical realism and nonlinear storytelling in her work. Bookriot
There is so much to love about this saga . . . this novel is wholly engrossing. Loved it. Roxane Gay, via Goodreads

Kali Fajardo-Anstine is the author of Woman of Light and Sabrina & Corina, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award, the PEN/Bingham Prize, The Story Prize, and winner of an American Book Award. She is the 2021 recipient of the Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her work has been honored with the Denver Mayor's Award for Global Impact in the Arts and the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association Reading the West Award. She has written for The New York Times, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, The American Scholar, Boston Review, and elsewhere, and has received fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and Tin House. Fajardo-Anstine earned her MFA from the University of Wyoming and has lived across the country, from Durango, Colorado, to Key West, Florida. She is the 2022/2023 Endowed Chair of Creative Writing at Texas State University. She is from Denver, Colorado.

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