Lighthouse Island - Large Print by Paulette Jiles (Paperback)

About the Book

Paulette Jiles, the bestselling author of the highly praised novels The Color of Lightning, Stormy Weather, and Enemy Women, pushes into new territory with Lighthouse Island--a captivating and atmospheric story set in the far future--a literary dystopian tale resonant with love and hope.

In the coming centuries the world's population has exploded. The earth is crowded with cities, animals are nearly all extinct, and drought is so widespread that water is rationed. There are no maps, no borders, no numbered years, and no freedom, except for an elite few. It is a harsh world for an orphan like Nadia Stepan. Growing up, she dreams of a green vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest.

When an opportunity for escape arises, Nadia embarks on a dangerous and sometimes comic adventure. Along the way she meets a man who changes the course of her life: James Orotov, a mapmaker and demolition expert. Together, they evade arrest and head north toward a place of wild beauty that lies beyond the megapolis--Lighthouse Island.

Book Synopsis

Paulette Jiles, the bestselling author of the highly praised novels The Color of Lightning, Stormy Weather, and Enemy Women, pushes into new territory with Lighthouse Island--a captivating and atmospheric story set in the far future--a literary dystopian tale resonant with love and hope.

In the coming centuries the world's population has exploded. The earth is crowded with cities, animals are nearly all extinct, and drought is so widespread that water is rationed. There are no maps, no borders, no numbered years, and no freedom, except for an elite few.

It is a harsh world for an orphan like Nadia Stepan. Growing up, she dreams of a green vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest.

When an opportunity for escape arises, Nadia embarks on a dangerous and sometimes comic adventure. Along the way she meets a man who changes the course of her life: James Orotov, a mapmaker and demolition expert. Together, they evade arrest and head north toward a place of wild beauty that lies beyond the megapolis--Lighthouse Island.

From the Back Cover

In the coming centuries, Earth's population has exploded and covered the planet with endless cities. It is an unwelcoming world for Nadia Stepan, abandoned at age four and left with only a drawing of the Big Dipper and her mother's parting words: "Look to the North Star, and we will always be there." Nadia grows up dreaming of the vacation spot called Lighthouse Island, in a place called the Pacific Northwest where she believes her long-lost parents must be. As her obsession grows, so too, does her determination to find her way there.

In the meantime, this bright and witty orphan finds refuge in neglected books, and the voice of Big Radio that emanates from an abandoned satellite, patiently reading the great classical books of the world.

When an opportunity for escape appears, Nadia strikes out in search of a dream. She faces every contingency with inventiveness and meets a man who changes the course of her life. Together, they head north toward a place of wild beauty that lies far beyond the megalopolis: Lighthouse Island.

Review Quotes

"The dystopian novel is beautifully written, and Jiles' scenes of [protagonist] Nadia navigating the crumbling cityscape and her surreal interactions with the many desperate characters are vivid, shocking and often darkly funny." - Columbus Dispatch on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
"[I]nventive futurism and rollicking wit." - New York Times Book Review on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
"Historical novels are by nature elegies. This is especially true of novels of the Old West, and never more so than in the form Cormac McCarthy has refined--call it the Poet's Western. Paulette Jiles, an accomplished poet as well as a novelist, lodges The Color of Lightning deep within this genre, packing her prose with inventive metaphor, luxuriant detail, and flights of fierce, austere poetry, as well as hymns to the Texas landscape. . . . [Jiles's] roving omniscience gives the novel the breadth and busyness of a Diego Rivera mural . . . a gripping, deeply relevant book." - New York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"Lighthouse Island is a beacon of hope for Nadia, the clever, resourceful young heroine of Paulette Jiles' spellbinding new novel. . . . Jiles' writing is crisp and vivid as always, and although her setting is vastly different, her themes--independence, individuality, love of the land--remain intact." - San Antonio Express-News on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
"Nadia's wandering journey maintains that hopeful anticipation of deep sleep. . . Jiles (Color of Lightening; Stormy Weather) has created a fascinating dystopic vision of a future world." - Library Journal on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
"Jiles's spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality. She is also an equal-opportunity storyteller, describing events from the point of view of settlers and Native Americans. Her descriptions of life in the Native-American camps are some of the most compelling sections of the book." - Seattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"Paulette Jiles has created a potent, harrowing story about real people with that genuine heroism that makes legendry pale by comparison....Jiles writes with an unerring poet's touch." - Dallas Morning News on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"Stick a thumb into any page of Paulette Jiles's The Color of Lightning and you'll pull out a fine prose plum." - Texas Monthly on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"Jiles's prose is a striking match for the barren landscape of this moody adventure tale." - Publishers Weekly on LIGHTHOUSE ISLAND
"A gripping, deeply relevant book." - New York Times Book Review on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"A rousing, character-driven tale." - Kirkus Reviews on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"A remarkably engaging story. . . . Jiles's description is memorable and evocative." - Denver Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"Jiles' spare and melancholy prose is the perfect language for this tale in which survival necessitates brutality." - Seattle Times on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"[A] meticulously researched and beautifully crafted story...In Larry McMurty's masterpiece, "Lonsome Dove," the action occurs in more or less the same place, about 10 years earlier...but the point of view in that estimable novel is strictly limited. Here, Paulette Jiles, who has done hell's own amount of research on these tribes and especially the captives they took, follows right along with the Kiowa after that first raid, and we learn, as do Mary and her children, what it took to survive and eventually flourish as captives...this is glorious work." - Washington Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING
"[A] meticulously researched and beautifully crafted story . . . this is glorious work." - Washington Post on THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING