The Stars and Their Light - by Olivia Hawker

Book Synopsis

In Roswell, New Mexico, the mystery of the unknown grips a sheltered novitiate in a haunting historical novel about fate, agency, and faith by the bestselling author of October in the Earth.

It's 1947 when Sister Mary Agnes arrives in New Mexico. Her mission is to establish a monastery in the town of Roswell, where weeks before rumors of the crash landing of an unidentified craft have triggered a crisis of faith. Residents are drifting away from the divine, awed no longer by the heavens but rather the stars.

In service to the frightened and confused, Sister Mary Agnes soon befriends Betty Campbell, a teenager marked both physically and psychically by the inexplicable event. Mary Agnes is also unsettlingly drawn to Harvey, an attentive handyman refurbishing the monastery--and a firsthand witness to the crash. But as Mary Agnes tries to guide her wayward friends back to the church, it's the fantastic and the forbidden that begin to loom large in her imagination.

Thrown into her own crisis of doubt, Mary Agnes must choose whether to uphold the order in which she came of age or embrace the truth she feels in her heart, despite its terrifying complexity.

Review Quotes

"The goal of this novel is not to imagine answers to the mystery of what took place in Roswell but to explore the response of individuals to inexplicable or unprecedented experiences. But while the events are open to conjecture, their effects are nonetheless real and wide-ranging, shaping relationships and careers, building and shaking faith." --Historical Novels Review

"A compelling and original novel told [in a way] that raises this work of biographical fiction to an impressive level of literary excellence...A welcome and enduringly popular pick." --Midwest Book Review

"For fans of Ray Bradbury, this is a story of strange events, forbidden love, and how far we go to protect the institutions of faith and order. The Stars and Their Light will utterly change you." --Jillian Forsberg, author of The Rhino Keeper