House Lights: A Novel

by Leah Hager Cohen

Overview

Late in her twentieth year, Beatrice, who dreams of a life on the stage, is confronting a home life torn asunder. She mails a letter on the sly to her grandmother, a legendary actress long estranged from the family, sparking events that will change her life forever. Powerfully written and psychologically intricate, House Lights illuminates the corrosive power of family secrets and the redemptive struggle to find truth, forgiveness, and love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393332728
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/17/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	330
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Leah Hager Cohen has written six novels and five works of nonfiction, including Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World, and the novels Strangers and Cousins, House Lights, and No Book but the World. She is the Barrett Professor of Creative Writing at the College of the Holy Cross.

Editorial Reviews

"Graceful, compassionate, and often unnervingly perceptive, House Lights explores that most familiar yet most mysterious subject, the dysfunctional family…An astute portrait of a highly 'civilized' family plunged into a crisis that is anything but civil."

Suzanne Berne

"House Lights is artfully constructed…Cohen writes with the scrupulousness of someone fashioning a short story, in which even the smallest details must bear their weight of significance."

New York Times Book Review - Kathryn Harrison

"Cohen offers lyrical prose, a remarkable voice, and a wealth of insights."

Seattle Times - Bharti Kirchner