Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato - Wait list

Blue Light Hours

by Bruna Dantas Lobato
Gisela Chípe
Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
Place a hold Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
From the National Book Award–winning translator, an atmospheric and wise debut novel of a young Brazilian woman's first year in America, a continent away from her lonely mother, and the relationship they build over Skype calls across borders.
In a small dorm room at a liberal arts college in Vermont, a young woman settles into the warm blue light of her desk lamp before calling the mother she left behind in northeastern Brazil. Four thousand miles apart and bound by the angular confines of a Skype window, they ask each other a simple question: what's the news?

Offscreen, little about their lives seems newsworthy. The daughter writes her papers in the library at midnight, eats in the dining hall with the other international students, and raises her hand in class to speak in a language the mother cannot understand. The mother meanwhile preoccupies herself with natural disasters, her increasingly poor health, and the heartbreaking possibility that her daughter might not return to the apartment where they have always lived together. Yet in the blue glow of their computers, the two women develop new rituals of intimacy and caretaking, from drinking whiskey together in the middle of the night to keeping watch as one slides into sleep. As the warm colors of New England autumn fade into an endless winter snow, each realizes that the promise of spring might mean difficult endings rather than hopeful beginnings.

Expanded from a story originally published in The New Yorker, and in elegant prose that recalls the work of Sigrid Nunez, Katie Kitamura, and Rachel Khong, Bruna Dantas Lobato paints a powerful portrait of a mother and a daughter coming of age together and apart and explores the profound sacrifices and freedoms that come with leaving a home to make a new one somewhere else.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 15, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781668130926
      • File size: 117858 KB
      • Duration: 04:05:32

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 5, 2024
      Translator Dantas Lobato debuts with a delicate story of a student’s first year at college and the pain of separation between her and her mother. After the unnamed narrator arrives at her Vermont dorm room, she calls her mother in Brazil every day, regaling her with updates about the New England weather, especially the first snow. The gulf between them widens as the narrator acclimates to college, while her mother remains consumed by chronic migraines and depression. By the spring semester, the mother’s health rebounds while the daughter’s zest for her new environment wanes (“Snow had started to leave a tinge of lifelessness on everything, and I stopped going outside”). The novel’s arc is shaped by a sudden inversion in the mother-daughter dynamic, as the narrator finds herself in need of comfort rather than obliging her mother’s needs. Throughout, Dantas Lobato crafts atmospheric details of the pastoral setting and of the ersatz intimacy of video calls (“My mother stayed in the shade for a moment longer, her cheeks glowing with the blue light of her computer screen”). This shines. Agent: Sarah Bowlin, Aevitas Creative Management.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Gisela Chpe provides a mesmerizing narration of this debut novella from the National Book Award-winning translator of THE WORDS THAT REMAIN. At a Vermont college, an unnamed young woman sits before a computer screen Skyping with her mother, who lives in Brazil. Chpe's light musical tone captures the independent young woman's hopeful, thoughtful persona, while her mother's somber, caring demeanor is brought forth by Chpe's quiet, contemplative intonation. Every evening, the two share the news of their days while enjoying a drink or a snack together and discussing family members, the daughter's studies and occasional social forays, the mother's reminiscences, as well as the news from their respective towns. Listeners will relate to the strong efforts each makes to keep their relationship close. M.J. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Loading