Awakening to Sunlight

 

Billed as “a novel of loss, love, and rediscovery,” Awakening to Sunlight is an addition to Bold Strokes Books’ Victory division. Stone sets her tender story of two women brought together by fate in the center of Amsterdam and opens the book with a poem by Thomas Hardy entitled, "The Shadows on the Stone."

   To truly embrace the future means having the courage to accept the past. This is a difficult task for Judith Hilford who is running from a heterosexual, 10-year long emotionally abusive relationship. Hilford ends the sprint from her past when she accepts a friend’s offer of temporary lodging in Marnixkade.

   But, when independent filmmaker Lizzy Mayfield, who lost her lover three years earlier, comes home to find Judith and her elementary-age daughter Emily living in her house things become tense. Mayfield wants to be left alone, however, realizing Hilford and her daughter have no place to go, Mayfield allows them to stay. As their lives become intertwined, Mayfield discovers how empty her life has become and Hilford finds herself feeling things for Mayfield.

   As Stone’s characters grow and face their pasts, they become hopeful about their futures. Awakening to Sunlight is more than just a novel of loss and love; it’s a terrific look inside ourselves as we are encouraged to take a good hard look at our own pasts and begin to dream about our futures.