Days of Light

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What to expect

'Think One Day written by (and starring) Virginia Woolf . . . lyrical and captivating' -The Observer
'Radiant, absorbing, sensual' - Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre
'Beautiful' - Sophie Elmhirst, author of Maurice and Maralyn

From the author of The End We Start From, now a major film starring Jodie Comer, and taking inspiration from the influential Bloomsbury Group, Days of Light is a sweeping, gorgeous story for fans of Mothering Sunday and The Hours.

Easter Sunday, 1938. Ivy is nineteen and ready for her life to finally begin. In the idyllic Sussex countryside, her sprawling, bohemian family and their friends gather for lunch, awaiting the arrival of a longed-for guest.

It is a single, enchanted afternoon that ends in tragedy.

Days later, at a funeral, Ivy is kissed by the man she will marry, and grieves with the woman who will become the love of her life. And this is only the beginning . . .

Chronicling six pivotal days across six decades, Days of Light moves through the Second World War and the twentieth century on a radiant journey through a life lived in pursuit of love and in search of an answer.

'Wonderful, luminous' - Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
'The characters stay with you in the best way' - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
'Sublime. Wielding tremendous emotional power, it is a novel that is both raw and reverent' - Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites

Critics Review

There’s warmth and depth in Hunter’s well-wrought prose. The characters stay with you in the best way
Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater
A radiant, absorbing novel, intensely alive to the beauty and mystery of the everyday. Megan Hunter has written a thoughtful, sensual novel that, like the work of Graham Swift, shows us how the world can change in a moment and how our daily lives are run through with both the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre
Think One Day written by (and starring) Virginia Woolf . . . This is a lyrical and captivating book, dropping decade by decade into a single day in the life of the brilliant, headstrong Ivy
The Observer
Days of Light is sublime. Wielding tremendous emotional power, it is a novel that is both raw and reverent, attuned to the intricacies of loss, desire, hope and how to be in the world.
Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites
Megan Hunter writes with such delicacy about how a single moment can shape and echo through a life. Her sentences are sensory events, open to every texture and shadow. A beautiful book.
Sophie Elmhirst, author of Maurice and Maralyn
Both transcendent and stylish. A classy gem of a novel steeped in rapturous feeling and the cumulative awe and pain of a life deeply lived.
Sharlene Teo, author of Ponti
Days of Light is elegant and piercing: the story of a life in six days, with all the epicness and intimacy that a premise like that holds. Hunter depicts Ivy's longing and anguish with painterly precision.
Sarvat Hasin, author of The Giant Dark
Days of Light is a jewel of a novel. Brimming with heart and compassion, a whole life shines through its pages. I am in awe of Megan Hunter's profound grasp of human nature, as she carries us through grief and desire, hope and forgiveness.
Elizabeth Macneal, bestselling author of The Doll Factory
Extraordinary. Beautiful, line by line, moving and absolutely transporting.
Cynan Jones, author of The Long Dry
Intense, emotionally precise and deeply affecting . . . Hunter’s fidelity to ordinary experience, to the richness and pleasures of everyday life, to the texture of memory and desire, make for compelling, revelatory prose. Empathy informs all of Hunter’s novels and Days of Light is further proof of her great capacity for clarity and intelligence about our innermost selves.
Rebecca Birrell, author of This Dark Country
A glittering marvel of a novel, tender, beautiful, and deeply moving.
Stephanie Bishop, author of The Anniversary
Megan Hunter is a writer of liquid, incandescent prose. Days of Light is a singular novel about art and loss, love and violence, God and mystery . . . her best book yet
Jamie Quatro, author of Two-Step Devil
A radiant meditation on time and transformation. Days of Light is a work of rare sensitivity that speaks to the heart of what it means to love, lose and persevere. A stunning, luminous read.
Freya Bromley, author of The Tidal Year
What Megan Hunter does in time and space within the confines of this book is amazing. Days of Light has that quality that all Megan’s books have, restrained but with so much momentum, an exacting turn of phrase and the ability to make the hair on your arms stand up through beauty and also something much darker.
Evie Wyld
Wonderful, luminous . . . the language is radiant . . . it channels Woolf and Mansfield and feels completely fresh
Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Beautiful . . . an intricate narrative web . . . readers will be rapt.
Publishers Weekly
'Magnificent . . . [a] beautifully written novel, that, rare in contemporary fiction, evokes a deep sense of the numinous
The Spectator
Affecting
Harper's Bazaar
Radiant
Stylist
Suffused with a sense of exultation . . . Days of Light navigates hefty themes - class, queer love, the search for transcendence - with ease. Stippled with gorgeous images, this is a tale of female emancipation that would have made Woolf proud.
The Observer
Capturing the allure of the divine is no easy feat . . . I’ve read many who try, but none who have done it quite so movingly, quite so eloquently, as Megan Hunter . . . What makes Days of Light so special is that the sense of wonder so beautifully undercuts the sense of loss.
Chicago Review of Books

User Reviews

Book 5.0
Narration 5.0
5.0
5.0
A wonderfully poetic story brilliantly read.
PBee 28/04/2025
5.0
5.0
ClareR 24/04/2025

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