At First Light, Vanessa Lafaye
At First Light, Vanessa Lafaye
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At First Light

Author: Vanessa Lafaye

Narrator: Adjoa Andoh

Unabridged: 10 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Orion

Published: 06/01/2017

Synopsis

1993, Key West, Florida. When a Ku Klux Klan official is shot in broad daylight, all eyes turn to the person holding the gun: a 96-year-old Cuban woman who will say nothing except to admit her guilt.

1919. Mixed-race Alicia Cortez arrives in Key West exiled in disgrace from her family in Havana. At the same time, damaged war hero John Morales returns home on the last US troop ship from Europe. As love draws them closer in this time of racial segregation, people are watching, including Dwayne Campbell, poised on the brink of manhood and struggling to do what's right. And then the Ku Klux Klan comes to town...

Inspired by real events, At First Light weaves together a decades-old grievance and the consequences of a promise made as the sun rose on a dark day in American history.

Includes the first chapter of Summertime, Vanessa's debut novel.

Read by Anjoa Andoh

(p) 2017 Orion publishing group

About Vanessa Lafaye

Vanessa Lafaye was born in Tallahassee and raised in Tampa, Florida, where there were hurricanes most years. She first came to the UK in 1987 looking for adventure, and found it. After spells of living in Paris and Oxford, she lived in Marlborough, Wiltshire. Vanessa passed away in February 2018.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Vanessa

Well, this is quite the page turner! It's set in Key West in Florida and is inspired by true events. The story begins in 1993 when an elderly lady is arrested for shooting a member of the Ku Klux Klan during a rally. The tale is then taken back in time to 1919 where a forbidden love affair develops......more

Goodreads review by Louise

Every so often a book comes along that you know you're going to read again, that you want to keep like a treasure on your bookshelf, that you know you'll be recommending to everyone... At First Light is this book. I was lost in the hot, sticky, long-gone world of Alicia and John, Thomas and Dwayne,......more

Goodreads review by Anne

Whilst At First Light is a companion story to the author’s debut novel, Summertime, they are both wonderful stories on their own, and con most certainly be read alone. Summertime was one of my favourite books of 2016 and I have been eagerly awaiting this second novel for a long time. I was lucky enou......more

Quotes

I loved it! I was completely riveted to this book, and couldn't put it down. Such a heartbreaking, beautiful story, told with such style and panache. It really brought Key West at that time alive for me - all the wildness, the vitality, the brutality, injustice and beauty were recreated with a mesmerizing clarity, and embodied in characters who lived and breathed. I could not put it down Katherine Webb, bestselling author of The Legacy

Brilliantly paced and utterly immersive, I savoured every sentence of this wonderful novel. Vanessa Lafaye's vivid prose transported me to 1919 Key West, with its brothels and bars, beaches and swamps, conjuring a place where love can flourish - but danger lurks. At First Light uncovers a disturbing era of American history, offering an unflinching insight into the dark and bizarre world of the Ku Klux Klan. While the political backdrop is fascinating, it never overwhelms the driving force of the novel - a love story which is both tragic and uplifting Juliet West, author of The Faithful

With characters and a story as warm and colourful as its Key West setting, Vanessa Lafaye's At First Light illuminates a shady period of American history with panache, style and a hearty punch to the gut. In Alicia Cortez she has created one of the most engaging heroines to walk across the pages of a historical novel in a long while Jason Hewitt, author of Devastation Road

I loved this dark yet sunlit story of love and revenge, set against a fascinating backdrop of convergent events Lissa Evans, author of Their Finest

An unputdownable, intriguing story of vengeance with tragedy at its heart WOMAN AND HOME

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