In the Shadow of Light

By Claire Alemian

By the time Ramona Newton is fifteen, her mother has walked out, her father soon to follow, and she ends up at a place called the Far East, tending bar for Charlie Big and hustling pool in order to survive. Ramona's life is further complicated when she meets Paul Palazola, a talented baseball player and high achiever in school. Their complex relationship will span the four years of the novel.Despite the harsh reality of Ramona's circumstances, she struggles to keep her dream of college and a better life alive while longing for her family and the life they once had together. As time goes by, she is haunted by why her mother left and begins to see herself as someone of little value and not worthy of being loved. When her mother's past eventually unfolds, Ramona is witness to a searing tragedy of evil and innocence that will lead Ramona to find her own truth. The story captures the turbulence of the 1960s and travels from the character-laden waterfront of Gloucester, Massachusetts to a false escape in the Caribbean, from the serenity of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, to the violence of the segregated south as seen through the eyes of a quiet black man they call Sweet Pea, a man who will have to face his own losses as he nurses Ramona back to health. From pool halls and gambling rooms to the ramshackle bungalow of Millie, an old fish cutter woman who becomes an unlikely friend to Ramona, this is a story that reveals the clash of generations and class divides, the turmoil created by the Vietnam War and racial injustice, and ultimately, a remarkable journey of finding oneself.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0997369906
• ISBN13: 9780997369908
• Release Date: January 2016
• Publisher: Wild Cat Press
• Length: 437 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher