Sunlight Finds You

A forbidden love blows open the world of a teenage girl, altering the trajectory of her life.

It’s 1949, early in the Cold War, but St. Petersburg, Florida, is warm and lush. For seventeen-year-old Nora, it’s paradise, especially after she meets and wins over Leonard, the shy, brilliant son of transplanted New Yorkers. Nora and Leonard are soon spending balmy days and evenings together, and in her adoring company, he grows more confident, even as he remains tender and caring. Leonard’s mother is welcoming, but his father is more suspicious of Nora and her lower class family. When forced to cut contact, Nora takes a chance that changes her life: exiling her from the family she loves, and setting off a chain of secrets and betrayals that will follow her into adulthood.

A layered and propulsive love story set in the past, but with much to say about our present, Sunlight Finds You is ultimately about extending forgiveness—for ourselves, and for others—and about refusing to settle for a life that is less than full.