Fiction African American & Black Coming of Age Hardcover E-book
Mark Smith, is a sensitive thirty-seven-year-old environmental scientist of mixed race. He tries to come to terms with his mother’s painful death as he goes through the stages of grief. Mark is also reassessing his relationship with his gay twin sister, Maria, a lawyer. After several failed relationships with women in college, Mark, while at his mother’s funeral in Chicago, reconnects with his high school girlfriend, Christy, an artist who paints only self-portraits. He now believes he has finally found true and lasting love, but trouble is brewing. Pulling focus on the cumulative unease and random violence that has gripped American life in recent years, The Glint of Light proves why Clarence Major is one of America’s most beloved novelists.
“This naturalistic novel follows a Black environmental scientist [Mark Smith]. The story is shaped by several cataclysmic events, which suit the novel’s backdrop, in which the Presidency of Barack Obama corresponds with a rise in white nationalism, though climate crisis and racially charged incidents.” - The New Yorker “The language in [The Glint of Light] is music, and the story a song that gets under the skin, lingers long—I’m still singing it. Clarence Major is known as one of our best poets. With The Glint of Light, he proves himself one of our most powerful novelists, as well.” —Bill Roorbach, author of Lucky Turtle “The Glint of Light …builds to its finale the way a Chekov story unfolds, skillfully told by this master…Major… is uniquely gifted…a national treasure.” —Nancy Schoenberger, author of Long Like a River “Told through crisp, sparse, and poetic prose…filled with philosophical insight about life, relationships, and art, this is a beautiful novel.” —Jennifer Murphy, Author of Scarlet in Blue “A potent and savvy drama …Clarence Major delivers a fierce, suspenseful, and unsentimental [novel]… you won’t want to put it down!” —Noley Reid, author of Pretend We Are Lovely “…The Glint of Light [is] Clarence Major at his best; [it] is a literary event of great importance.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of A Good Cent from a Strange Mountain “Clarence Major probes the human condition through the prism of one man’s complex interior world where hope and doubt live on every page. Infused with poetic prose and skillful plot twists this page turner brings the reader to an understanding of how it is possible to emerge from loss and hardship. This book is a beauty.” —Marcia Butler, author of Oslo, Maine “I couldn’t put The Glint of Light down. [It’s] absorbing and informative…The novel brims with intelligence and insight…The story is uplifting and heartbreaking with some unexpected twists. I highly recommend The Glint of Light.”—Carol Orange, author of A Discerning Eye “The Glint of Life is… gut-wrenching… The result is a hypnotizing tale of the tensions between love, duty and betrayal.” —Helen Benedict, author of Wolf Season “Clarence Major’s The Glint of Light gave me the gift of his intimate storyteller’s voice, as if we were sitting across a table from each other, drinking coffee… It moves with poignant detail… There’s so much longing in this novel, so much truth-telling. It will wise you up; it may break your heart.” —Patricia Henley, author of Hummingbird House “Monumentally moving, The Glint of Light offers a spellbinding view into the nuances of the human experience. This novel beautifully captures the length of a life and tackles the lingering effects of loss, the power of desire and the pull to self-discovery with remarkable acuity. This is an arresting read that is not to be missed.” —Jennifer Maritza McCauley, author of When Trying to Return Home “This eminently readable novel explores…death [and] love…in a subtly oblique and understanded fashion [and] the deeper malaise that afflicts society…”—Charles Lambert, author of The Children’s Home “…Clarence Major brings us a quietly stunning new novel as large in its vision as it is subtle in its unfolding. With elegance and grace, Major paints a portrait of America at a particular historical moment (the Obama years), yet the book’s concerns are timeless, universal: the loss of a mother, the dance of sibling rivalry, the search for love…. Clarence Major brings th
