Illuminations

“Both a howl against the war in Afghanistan . . . and a multilayered, deeply felt tale of family, loss, memory, art, loyalty, secrecy and forgiveness.” —The New York Times Book Review

Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize

Anne Quirk’s life is built on stories—the lies she was told by the man she loved and the fictions she told herself to survive. Nobody remembers Anne now, but in her youth she was an artistic pioneer, a creator of groundbreaking documentary photographs. Her beloved grandson Luke, a captain with the Royal West Fusiliers in the British army, has inherited her habit of transforming reality. When his mission in Afghanistan goes horribly wrong, he returns to Scotland, where the secrets that have shaped his family begin to emerge. He and Anne set out to confront a mystery from her past among the Blackpool Illuminations—the dazzling lights that brighten the seaside town as the season turns to winter.

“Like its two main characters, this impressive novel has a double life, moving with imaginative daring between war and art, photography and fiction, and memory and secrets.” —The Guardian

“Hypnotic . . . The Illuminations doesn’t exactly follow a plumb line: It shifts in time, perspective and place. But it’s occasionally lit up with a flash that makes the pieces of Anne’s story clear. It’s worth the trip into the dark.” —The Globe and Mail

“A clever, expansive and powerfully charged novel about family connections and the unreliability of memory.” —Star Tribune

“A lean yet rich family story built of small and crucial moments in memories and reality across three generations.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)