Lights All Night Long: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of April 2019: In a decrepit mining town in northern Russia, Ilya discovers his gift for language while watching Die Hard with his charming, indolent older brother, Vladmir. As they get older, Vladmir’s gusto for the seedier things in life (prostitutes, partying) grows dangerous when a powerful new, opiate-like drug called krokodil comes to town. Just before 15-year-old Ilya leaves for an exchange program in America, Vladmir is accused of murder. The reader is then thrown into a raucous, Christian family in Louisiana where the oldest daughter has a secret with an unexpected connection to Ilya’s personal mission to exonerate his brother.

Watching each relationship in the book unfold – parent/child, student/teacher, siblings, lovers – was like being held in a strange, thrilling embrace by a boa constrictor. From the ice-locked kommunalkas to the hot showers and cold Pepsi of suburban America, the author charts the ferocity and carelessness of family loyalty, and the terrible resilience of love. A brutal, beautifully told story of teenagers and adults doing the best they can, and that often not being enough. This book will look you in the eyes as it languorously bootheels your heart, all the more painful for the author having only written this one book so far. --Katy Ball