A Northern Light - Jennifer Donnelly

Category: Historical Fiction, True Crime
Language: English
Keywords: Historical Fiction True Crime Feminist Adironacks

Written by Jennifer Donnelly
Read by Hope Davis
Format: MP3

Mattie Gokey has a word for everything. She collects words, stores them up as a way of fending off the hard truths of her life, the truths that she can’t write down in stories.
The fresh pain of her mother’s death. The burden of raising her sisters while her father struggles over his brokeback farm. The mad welter of feelings Mattie has for handsome but dull Royal Loomis, who says he wants to marry her. And the secret dreams that keep her going: visions of finishing high school, going to college in New York City, becoming a writer.

Yet when the drowned body of a young woman turns up at the hotel where Mattie works, all her words are useless. But in the dead woman’s letters, Mattie again finds her voice, and a determination to live her own life.

Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy, this coming-of-age novel effortlessly weaves romance, history and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.

“Donnelly’s characters ring true to life, and the meticulously described setting forms a vivid backdrop to this finely crafted story. An outstanding choice for historical-fiction fans.” (School Library Journal)
“In an intelligent, colloquial voice that speaks with a writer’s love of language and an observant eye, Mattie details the physical particulars of people’s lives as well as deeper issues of race, class, and gender…Many teens will connect with Mattie’s deep yearning for independence and for stories, like her own, that are frank, messy, complicated, and inspiring.” (Booklist)

PERSONAL NOTE: In my opinion, this is a pretty good book. It’s not just for teens. I’m in my mid-40s. I am fascinated by true crime and in particular the death/murder of Grace Brown up in the Adirondacks, in 1906, which this fictional novel is centered around. It also focuses on female writers and females in general and the struggle they have had to achieve independence. Pretty good stuff, with lots of researched detail into the life at the turn of the century in the Adirondacks.