Coming
The Radiant Dark by Alexandra Oliva
When Carol is confronted with the reality that intelligent life exists on another planet, it upends her life and what she imagines is possible.
- Sale Date
- ISBN
- 9781638932536
- Page Count
- 416
- Language
- English
- Imprint
- SJP Lit
Meet the Author
Alexandra Oliva
Arrival meets Wild Dark Shore in this captivating novel that follows a family over fifty years—a bold and compassionate exploration of the universe around us and what it truly means to be human.
“The Radiant Dark is incandescent.” —Sarah Jessica Parker
It’s March 1980, and Carol Girard and her husband are living an ordinary life in a small town in the Adirondacks. They have just had their first child, and though Carol is struggling with the challenges of new motherhood, her future seems clear. Until something extraordinary happens: an inexplicable flickering of light in the sky, which is ultimately determined to be communication from intelligent life on another planet. But these beings are eleven light-years away, and nothing is known about them other than the fact that they seem to know we exist too. And so begins a decades-long exchange of messages with this mysterious, faraway civilization.
As humanity reels from a shifting understanding of its place in the universe, we follow the stories of the Girard family: Carol, whose fascination with this other life sparks a desperate search for spiritual meaning; Michael, her loyal son, who finds solace not in the stars above his head but in the ground beneath his feet; and Ro, Carol’s bright and ambitious daughter, whose childhood goal to work in interstellar communication will evolve into something far grander.
Tracing five decades of love, loss, ambition, and self-discovery, The Radiant Dark is a stunning examination of a family navigating their lives with the knowledge that we are not alone.
“The Radiant Dark is incandescent.” —Sarah Jessica Parker
It’s March 1980, and Carol Girard and her husband are living an ordinary life in a small town in the Adirondacks. They have just had their first child, and though Carol is struggling with the challenges of new motherhood, her future seems clear. Until something extraordinary happens: an inexplicable flickering of light in the sky, which is ultimately determined to be communication from intelligent life on another planet. But these beings are eleven light-years away, and nothing is known about them other than the fact that they seem to know we exist too. And so begins a decades-long exchange of messages with this mysterious, faraway civilization.
As humanity reels from a shifting understanding of its place in the universe, we follow the stories of the Girard family: Carol, whose fascination with this other life sparks a desperate search for spiritual meaning; Michael, her loyal son, who finds solace not in the stars above his head but in the ground beneath his feet; and Ro, Carol’s bright and ambitious daughter, whose childhood goal to work in interstellar communication will evolve into something far grander.
Tracing five decades of love, loss, ambition, and self-discovery, The Radiant Dark is a stunning examination of a family navigating their lives with the knowledge that we are not alone.
Praise for The Radiant Dark
-
“Like the stars it centers around, The Radiant Dark is incandescent. A captivating family saga with a delicately speculative edge, this one’s a masterpiece.”
Sarah Jessica Parker, SJP Lit -
“Alexandra Oliva is a master storyteller, her work is atmospheric, imaginative, and riveting. The Radiant Dark is a sprawling epic of the fate of one family, foretold in the stars through time and space. The Girard family is unforgettable in their ties to one another and the universe they live in. It’s all here. Mystery. Wonder. Surprise—and the power of love. An immersive read that will lead you home.”
Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The View from Lake Como -
“The Radiant Dark is unforgettable. Daring and expansive, soul-stirring, and precise, this is a novel about love and belonging—to our ancestors and descendants, our families and ourselves, and to one another. I ached and I cried, my heart was filled with a gentle hope for the people who come after us. Oliva writes with triumphant beauty: we are not alone.”
—Eliana Ramage, author of To the Moon and Back
About the Imprint
Gorgeous, big-hearted, and thought-provoking stories—acquired and championed by Sarah Jessica Parker herself. All curated with the passion of a lifelong reader turned publisher.
