First published 2004
Fos comes home to Tennessee from the French trenches with his mind fixed on electricity, bioluminescence, and x-rays. He travels to the Outer Banks to observe the Perseid meteor shower and meets Opal, daughter of a glassblower who spins color from light. Fos brings his bride to Knoxville where he operates a photography studio with Flash, his Army friend who despises Prohibition and courts danger. Flash's reckless pleasures attract trouble from both law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan, forcing Fos and Opal to flee to her mother's farm on the Clinch River. They raise their son Lightfoot there until the New Deal seizes their land for the TVA. Desperate for work, Fos takes a position at Oak Ridge Laboratory, the government's secret Site X where scientists race to build the atomic bomb. When Opal sickens from radiation exposure, Fos watches his faith in science crumble. Their journey carries them from innocent wonder at glowing phenomena to the terrifying reality of manmade suns.
Genres: science-fiction, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Tennessee, Outer Banks, Knoxville, Clinch River, Oak Ridge
Period: World War I, New Deal, Manhattan Project
400 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster
Content warnings: death, medical-trauma