Sunlit Night (Dinerstein)

Book Reviews
The Norwegian Arctic of Dinerstein's imagination is a strange and wonderful place, half stark wilderness and half Scandi-kitsch paradise…the pleasure of The Sunlit Night derives less from [Yasha and Frances's] story than from the joyfully odd landscape Dinerstein conjures, in which certain absurdities begin to seem quite natural…
Britt Peterson - New York Times Book Review


Dinerstein's crystalline prose floats off the page, her storytelling delights and surprises. She takes on the travails, absurdities and human failings with warmth and humor, embracing it all and reminding us through her characters to do the same.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel


Refreshing.... The author is a poet so the prose is, not surprisingly, lyrical but it's observant and witty, too.
Daily Mail (UK)


Dinerstein's much buzzed-about debut novel is a fanciful Arctic Circle romance between a Russian immigrant raised in a Brighton Beach bakery and a Manhattanite seeking refuge from family problems in a Norwegian artists' colony.
Forward


Engaging and alive.... The Sunlit Night heralds the beginning of an intriguing career in fiction during which Dinerstein will hopefully continue to take us off the beaten path.
Huffington Post


(Starred review.) In Dinerstein’s captivating debut novel, an isolated island above the Arctic Circle is the setting for two people trying to surmount grief and find love.... With provocative insights about the cruelty of abandonment, the concept of home, and the limits of parental and filial love, Dinerstein’s novel is a rich reading experience.
Publishers Weekly


The disorienting "midnight sun" of summer near the Arctic Circle creates a mystical setting as the characters work out their personal and family dilemmas. New Yorkers Frances and Yasha (both immensely likable characters) experience profound culture shock in the sparsely populated town and yearn to connect with each other. —Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
Library Journal


At the very top of the world, two lonely outsiders find comfort in each other in Dinerstein's deliciously melancholy debut.... Frances and Yasha—united by their separate losses...fall into an unlikely kind of romance. Dinerstein's writing is light and lyrical, and her descriptions of the far north are intoxicating.... A poetic premise with language to match.
Kirkus Reviews