Days of Light

"A sweeping, sensual historical novel about one woman's unconventional life lived in search of an answer by the award-winning author of The End We Start From and The Harpy. In 2017, Megan Hunter burst onto the literary scene with her debut novel, The End We Start From, a startlingly beautiful story of climate change and motherhood that is now a feature film starring Jodie Comer. Her second book, The Harpy, fiercely explored marriage and power through a dark, imaginative tale of revenge. A writer of remarkable range, Hunter now delivers her first historical novel, a gorgeous exploration of art, desire, and faith set against the backdrop of a changing England. Easter Sunday, 1938. Ivy is nineteen and ready for her life to finally begin. Her sprawling, bohemian family and their friends gather in the idyllic English countryside for lunch, arranging themselves around well-worn roles. They trade political views and artistic arguments as they impatiently await the arrival and first sight of Frances, the new beau of Ivy's beloved older brother, Joseph. In this auspicious atmosphere of springtime, Ivy's world feels on the cusp of something grand-but neither she nor those closest to her predicts how a single, enchanted evening will alter the rest of their lives. A radiant, philosophical, and intimate journey through time, Days of Light chronicles six pivotal days across six decades to tell the story of Ivy's pursuit of answers-to the events of this fateful Easter Sunday and to the shifting desires of her own heart. Moving through the Second World War up to the close of the twentieth century, Hunter captures the galvanic love and transformative moments that define a winding, beautiful life"--

Megan Hunter is a prizewinning novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Her first novel, The End We Start From (2017) was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the Books Are My Bag Awards, longlisted for the Aspen Words Prize, was a Barnes and Noble Discover Awards finalist and won the Foreword Reviews Editor's Choice Award. It was adapted into a major motion picture by Alice Birch, starring Jodie Comer and directed by Mahalia Belo. Her second novel, The Harpy (2020), was Indie Book of the Month; she is currently adapting it for television with Red Planet Pictures. In 2024 her dramatic monologue Salt of the Earth premiered at Venice Film Festival. Megan's other writing has appeared in the White Review, the TLS, Literary Hub, Vogue, Elle, BOMB, and elsewhere. She lives in Cambridge, UK.