Introduction

A gripping and deftly plotted narrative of family and belonging, Lights All Night Long is a dazzling debut novel from an acclaimed young writer

"A luminous debut. . . . It's hard not to read the book in a single sitting."--The Los Angeles Times

"Lights All Night Long is utterly brilliant and completely captivating. . . . One of the most propulsive, un-put-downable literary novels I've read in ages."--Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Fifteen-year-old Ilya arrives in Louisiana from his native Russia for what should be the adventure of his life: a year in America as an exchange student. The abundance of his new world--the Super Walmarts and heated pools and enormous televisions--is as hard to fathom as the relentless cheerfulness of his host parents. And Sadie, their beautiful and enigmatic daughter, has miraculously taken an interest in him.

But all is not right in Ilya's world: he's consumed by the fate of his older brother Vladimir, the magnetic rebel to Ilya's dutiful wunderkind, back in their tiny Russian hometown. The two have always been close, spending their days dreaming of escaping to America. But when Ilya was tapped for the exchange, Vladimir disappeared into their town's seedy, drug-plagued underworld. Just before Ilya left, the murders of three young women rocked the town's usual calm, and Vladimir found himself in prison.

With the help of Sadie, who has secrets of her own, Ilya embarks on a mission to prove Vladimir's innocence. Piecing together the timeline of the murders and Vladimir's descent into addiction, Ilya discovers the radical lengths to which Vladimir has gone to protect him--a truth he could only have learned by leaving him behind.

A rich tale of belonging and the pull of homes both native and adopted, Lights All Night Long is a spellbinding story of the fierce bond between brothers determined to find a way back to each other.

Editorial Review

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

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