Light from Other Stars

A Long Island Reads 2020 Selection * A Real Simple Best Book of 2019

From the bestselling author of The Book of Speculation, a "tender and ambitious" (Vulture) novel about time, loss, and the wonders of the universe.

Eleven-year-old Nedda Papas is obsessed with becoming an astronaut. In 1986 in Easter, a small Florida Space Coast town, her dreams seem almost within reach--if she can just grow up fast enough. Theo, the scientist father she idolizes, is consumed by his own obsessions. Laid off from his job at NASA and still reeling from the loss of Nedda's newborn brother several years before, Theo turns to the dangerous dream of extending his daughter's childhood just a little longer. The result is an invention that alters the fabric of time.

Decades later, Nedda has achieved her long-held dream and is traveling aboard the space ship Chawla, part of a small group hoping to colonize a distant planet. But as she floats in zero gravity, far from earth, she and her crewmates face a serious crisis. Nedda may hold the key to the solution, if she can come to terms with her past and the future that awaits her.

For fans of The Age of Miracles and The Immortalists, Erika Swyler's Light from Other Stars is a masterful and ambitious novel about fathers and daughters, women and the forces that hold them back, and the true meaning of progress.

Author: Erika Swyler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 05/07/2019
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.34lbs
Size: 9.50h x 6.40w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781635573169

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2018 pg. 48
Publishers Weekly 01/28/2019
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2019 pg. 42
Booklist 03/15/2019 pg. 42
Foreword 04/26/2019

About the Author
Erika Swyler's first novel, The Book of Speculation, was one of BuzzFeed's 24 Best Fiction Books of 2015, and a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection. Her writing has appeared in Catapult Story, Literary Hub, VIDA, The New York Times, and elsewhere. She lives on Long Island, NY, with her husband and a mischievous rabbit.