Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.

Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly's astonishing debut novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.

Includes a reader's guide and an interview with the author.

Amazon.com Review
It's 1906 and 16-year-old Mattie Gokey is at a crossroads in her life. She's escaped the overwhelming responsibilities of helping to run her father's brokedown farm in exchange for a paid summer job as a serving girl at a fancy hotel in the Adirondacks. She's saving as much of her salary as she can, but she's having trouble deciding how she's going to use the money at the end of the summer. Mattie's gift is for writing and she's been accepted to Barnard College in New York City, but she's held back by her sense of responsibility to her family--and by her budding romance with handsome-but-dull Royal Loomis. Royal awakens feelings in Mattie that she doesn't want to ignore, but she can't deny her passion for words and her desire to write.

At the hotel, Mattie gets caught up in the disappearance of a young couple who had gone out together in a rowboat. Mattie spoke with the young woman, Grace Brown, just before the fateful boating trip, when Grace gave her a packet of love letters and asked her to burn them. When Grace is found drowned, Mattie reads the letters and finds that she holds the key to unraveling the girl's death and her beau's mysterious disappearance. Grace Brown's story is a true one (it's the same story told in Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy and in the film adaptation, A Place in the Sun), and author Jennifer Donnelly masterfully interweaves the real-life story with Mattie's, making her seem even more real.

Mattie's frank voice reveals much about poverty, racism, and feminism at the turn of the twentieth century. She witnesses illness and death at a range far closer than most teens do today, and she's there when her best friend Minnie gives birth to twins. Mattie describes Minnie's harrowing labor with gut-wrenching clarity, and a visit with Minnie and the twins a few weeks later dispels any romance from the reality of young motherhood (and marriage). Overall, readers will get a taste of how bitter--and how sweet--ordinary life in the early 1900s could be. Despite the wide variety of troubles Mattie describes, the book never feels melodramatic, just heartbreakingly real. (14 and older) --Jennifer Lindsay

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 139 reviews)

One of the best "true" fictions I've read...

Lest I get carried away with verbose praise, I just want to say that this is superb storytelling by Donnelly. Admittedly, I had no knowledge of the real murder of a Grace Brown. And though her letters were indeed heartbreaking, and at turns, horrific to read, I was more fascinated with the lives of Mattie and Weaver - two of the strongest characters I've ever encountered. After reading this novel, I found myself grateful that I, as yet, have not gone through the kind of back-breaking, and, dare I say it, near soul-defeating hardships the people in this novel had. But it takes masterful narration like that of Donnelly's to infuse hope, laughter, and spirit in the stories of those living in Eagle Bay.

Mattie is as real a person as one could get - loves her family so much yet still aware of all of their flaws, including her own, torn between making right by her loved ones as well as yearning to break free of a suffocating way of life, so young still in so many ways yet mature enough to realize the kind of dreams she can have. And Weaver makes me envious as well for his fearlessness and strength.

A Northern Light will take you to heights of teasing glimpses of a happy-ending for all, as well as to the downs of heartrending drama and seemingly endless trials in a small, simple town. Very provocative. Intensely memorable. A must read for all.
September 01, 2008

A Northern Light

I loved this book. I thought it was well written and the author is a great story teller. I will be looking for other books written by her.
August 31, 2008

So lyrical!

I just finished a most remarkable and moving book! A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly focuses on Mattie, a sixteen-year-old girl growing up in the Adirondack mountains in the early 1900's. Mattie is very smart and loves to read and write. This is frowned upon by her father, who relies on Mattie to raise her siblings after the death of their mother. Mattie's dream is to go to college. This dream seems as though it may come true after she is accepted into Barnard, a college in New York City. But Mattie doesn't have the money for the train ride there or for room and board. Complications arise in the form of Royal Loomis, a local boy that begins to court Mattie. Mattie gives up her dream of going to college until a tragic event occurs at the Glenmore, a hotel where Mattie works to earn extra money. This event puts everything in Mattie's life into perspective. Will Mattie go to college or give up her dreams forever?

The language and writing in this book is lyrical. It moves seamlessly between past and present. The story is intricately woven together and the characters drawn perfectly. I was rooting for Mattie and her dreams all the way, but the obstacles in her life, i.e. her father and Royal, were also very sympathetic. Mattie's word of the day guided the events of the book just as much as the characters. Even though, at the beginning of the book, I knew what was going to happen, I was still amazed at the twists and turns. I love books that start in the present and go back in time to tell the story. It makes for such an interesting read. I drug this book out over a few weeks, but could have easily finished it in one long day! It is just that good! No wonder it's a Printz Honor Book!

July 03, 2008

Courtesy of Mother Daughter Book Club.com

A Northern Light by Jenifer Donnelly is a beautifully written book with well-developed, complicated characters who made difficult choices. It makes a great book to discuss in a book club, especially a mother-daughter book club, because it provides an entrée to discuss the limitations put on women by society in the early 1900s and to talk about how the girls' choices in life are so different now from when the characters were living or even from when the moms were growing up.

Set in upstate New York, A Northern Light weaves the real-life story of Grace Brown into the fictional story of Mattie Gokey (Mathilda Gauthier). Mattie's mother has died, exacting a promise from Mattie to take care of her younger sisters and her father and brother. But Mattie's father is isolated from his family emotionally, as he works non-stop to eke out a living on his farm. Mattie's brother has left, after a blow-up with his father, and no one expects to see him again. Mattie's sisters need parenting, but not from an older sister.

And Mattie has dreams of her own. She's a talented writer who's been accepted with a scholarship to attend Barnard College in New York. But how will she ever get the money to live while in school or permission from her father to leave? Told in flashbacks between a time when Mattie's story intersects with Grace Brown's, a young girl who drowned on a lake at a summer camp in the Adirondacks, and Mattie's life leading up to that point, the story moves along at a comfortable pace until we ultimately reach the point of Mattie's biggest decision. Donnelly flawlessly weaves in vivid details of life in the Adirondacks--lumbering camps, isolated farms, summer camps for wealthy tourists, supply boats, and one-room schoolhouses--that transports the reader back to that time in history.

It also deals frankly with several sexual situations. While the passages dealing with these situations were a little awkward to read out loud with my 13-year-old daughter, they were still appropriate for readers eighth grade and older, and they also gave us a chance to discuss some issues that are tough to talk about if you're not discussing a character in a book.
July 02, 2008

One of the Best Historical Novels I've Ever Read

The year is 1906. Mattie Gokey is only sixteen years old. She is fascinated by books and words and desperately wants to go to college. She has the brains, but not the means. Her family has been struggling financially ever since the death of her mother. Mattie feels that she'll be trapped in Eagle Bay until an interesting set of circumstances permits her to take a job at the Glenmore Hotel. With this opportunity, Mattie plans to save up as much money as she can so that she can make it to college.

But the death of a hotel guest, Grace Brown, leads Mattie to question everything in her life. Right before Grace's death, Grace asked Mattie to burn a packet of her letters. Going against Grace's wishes, Mattie reads the letters and learns the truth behind Grace's death. Other events, such as a marriage proposal, discovering that her idolized teacher is not who she says she is, and new that a poor neighbor's land is being auctioned, make Mattie reconsider her life choices.

A Northern Light was a simply amazing novel. it was so much more than I expected. It was a wonderful retelling of an actual historical occurrence, the murder of Grace Brown, and this made the story all the more interesting. I also enjoyed the incorporation of romance and Mattie's love of books. I see so much of myself in her because we are bother obsessed with books and want to go far in the world, and I think this made it easy for me to relate to her. There isn't much seen of the other characters because the novel is told from Mattie's perspective, but Mattie's interaction or descriptions of them made them realistic. I also liked how everything was tied up nicely at the end. What was a little confusing was how the story jumped around a bit. The story starts from after Grace's death, then goes before the event, and jumps around again. This made the story a little confusing to read, but in a way, it helped me understand the story better.

I definitely recommend A Northern Light to all readers, especially fans of historical fiction. This amazing novel definitely makes me look forward to more exciting historical novels.

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June 10, 2008

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