“[A] raw, blistering coming-of-age novel … Singer evokes with rare passion the tumultuous confusions and conflicts as teens seek to work out their racial and sexual identities. … Readers will find Mikal's erratic passage through a rough adolescence both vivid and compelling.”
Description
Angry 16 year-old misfit Mikal Fanon has just joined a gang of Neo-Nazi skinheads for reasons that are not entirely clear to him. He is taken in by the leader of the gang, Richard, and the two become fast (and best) friends. Emboldened by his new-found sense of belonging Mikal finds himself committing horrible acts of violence without a second thought. But two women threaten to tear his world apart - a gorgeous and passionate young Black activist on campus named Niani Shange, to whom Mikal finds himself hopelessly attracted, and Sherry Nicolas, Richard's new girlfriend who seems to be driving a wedge between the two young skinheads . . .
Sherry Nicolas, awkward, shy, and away from home for the first time in her life, finds comfort in a brand new circle of friends and a handsome new boyfriend - the charming and charismatic Richard Lovecraft. Richard leads Sherry into a wild, thrilling, fast-paced lifestyle that is also dangerous and troubling . . . the violent ''white power'' underground. Though very much in love with Richard, Sherry finds herself increasingly fascinated by a group of young leftist radicals on campus lead by Niani Shange and her platonic best friend, the rather ghoulish and unstable Jack Curry.
Sherry's (and Mikal's) attraction to these two radically opposite - yet eerily similar - forces threatens to throw fuel on an already smoldering fire, leading to a bloody and explosive end. Who will survive and who will be burned?
Reviews
“In furiously fast-paced prose … Singer vivifies the attraction of the white power movement, drawing both the long, boring stretches spent playing video games and the heated moments of violence, set against a backdrop of sex and metal music . . . Singer’s percussive prose [works] its magic. An unblinking portrait of young white rage.”
"Quite simply, In The Light of You is one of the finest coming-of-age novels published so far this century. Incendiary and moving, deeply relevant and searingly honest, it deserves to catapult Nathan Singer to the top of the list of America's best young novelists."
“With prose brutal as a tumble through barbed wire and a tweaker's furious energy, Nathan Singer has crafted a chilling look inside the White Power movement. A riveting story of hatred, fear, longing, and maybe, just possibly, redemption."
