Picture of author.

Vanessa Lafaye (1963–2018)

Autor(a) de Under a Dark Summer Sky

3 Works 139 Membros 18 Críticas

About the Author

Vanessa Lafaye was born in Tallahassee, Florida in 1963. She received a BsC degree in zoology from Duke University. She moved to the United Kingdom in 1987. From 1989 to 1999, she worked as a commissioning editor at Oxford University Press. Her novels included Summertime and At First Light. She was mostrar mais diagnosed with breast cancer in 2009 and detailed the impact of living with cancer in her blog Living While Dying. She died from cancer on February 28, 2018 at the age of 54. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Includes the name: Vanessa Lafaye

Image credit: Vanessa Lafaye/The Guardian

Obras por Vanessa Lafaye

Under a Dark Summer Sky (2015) 105 exemplares
Miss Marley (2018) 21 exemplares
At First Light (2017) 13 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Data de nascimento
1963
Data de falecimento
2018-02-28
Sexo
female
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Local de falecimento
Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, UK
Locais de residência
Tampa, Florida, USA
Paris, France
Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Marlborough, Wiltshire, England, UK
Educação
Duke University (BsC) (zoology)
Ocupações
academic publisher
historical novelist
blogger
Relações
Mascull, Rebecca (friend)

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Vanessa Lafaye was born and raised in Florida. She moved to Europe in 1987, living first in France and then in the UK. She spent many years working in academic publishing, including at Oxford University Press. She wrote two acclaimed historical novels, Summertime (also published as Under a Dark Summer Sky, 2015) and First Light (2017), both published by Orion. The final chapters of Miss Marley, her novella inspired by characters from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol -- Ebenezer Scrooge’s ghostly business partner Jacob Marley and his sister -- were completed by her friend and fellow novelist Rebecca Mascull and published posthumously in 2018. Lafaye detailed the impact of living with cancer in her popular blog Living While Dying, which was picked up in a number of media outlets such as the Daily Mail.

Membros

Críticas

Based on a horrific hurricane hitting the town of Islamorada on Labor Day in 1935 and, more specifically, on a video on the Florida Keys historical society website (http://www.keyshistory.org/shelf1935hurrpage15.html), Vanessa Lafaye has written a memorable story about the residents of the mythical town of Heron Key. Tensions are running high in the town: white versus black and local residents versus displaced, disgruntled WWI veterans hired to build the highway across the Keys. When a local beauty queen gone to seed, following the birth of her son, is viciously beaten, the townfolk are seeking justice, ahead of the law. Meanwhile, the local police chief has been cuckolded by his wife, and has a mixed race son, and his agenda is unclear. When this powerful storm hits, the town divides and the veterans, living in hastily constructed shacks, have no idea what is coming and have again been abandoned by their government. Underneath all of this misery though, there are stories of courage, family, love, hatred, friendship, and leadership. A good one for book clubs.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
skipstern | 13 outras críticas | Jul 11, 2021 |
I was absolutely captivated by Vanessa LaFaye's first novel, Summertime, which I read five years ago, and only sorry that I didn't immediately snap this up two years later! The two stories are vaguely connected by the characters, but First Light is set over fifteen years earlier, at the end of the First World War. Both novels are based on real life events and brilliantly written.

In 1993, a ninety year old woman calmly collects her pistol, walks into the middle of a Klan parade, and shoots an equally elderly old man in a wheel chair. All she will tell the police is 'I did it, it was me'. Seventy years earlier, John Morales returns home to Key West as a war hero with a dark secret. Alicia Cortez has been banished from her home in Havana and sent to work for her cousin, who owns a politely termed 'tea house' next door to John's bar. The two meet and sparks fly, so of course they fall in love. The only trouble, apart from Alicia inheriting a brothel and Prohibition threatening to destroy John's business, is that the Klan are coming to town and John and Alicia's mixed race relationship is the spark that could blow the town apart. Fourteen year old Dwayne Campbell, the sheriff in Summertime, is torn between his father's role with the Klan and his love for Alicia.

Although I was drawn into the character's lives again, this story seemed to have a slower pace than the previous novel, and reading also took slightly longer. I hate reading about ridiculous organisations like the Klan, even when the author takes time to illustrate just how pathetic and insidious such groups actually were (are?), and so I struggled with the chapters describing Dwayne's temporary brainwashing. I did wholeheartedly believe in Alicia and John and their love for each other, however, perhaps because they are based on real people, and although I knew tragedy was coming, wanted them to be happy.

Vanessa LaFaye is such an incredible author, fleshing out the bones of a random historical event to create a moving and wonderfully evocative story, and I will have to make sure I don't miss any more of her work!
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
AdonisGuilfoyle | 3 outras críticas | Aug 11, 2020 |
It is summer 1935. America has come out of the other side of the first world war and is in the midst of the depression. The brave men who fought in the great War have been abandoned by the government who have failed to keep their promises of pensions and other financial support. A large number of them placed in a camp near the tiny Florida community of Heron Key. This was the time of segregation and the tension in the town with so many soldiers nearby is raised further again.

After the July the 4th celebrations a white residents wife is found badly beaten and left for dead by a road. One of the soldiers is arrested for her attempted murder and the uneasy truce between the residents and the troops is shattered. As the pressures build in the community and residents are looking to take matters into their own hands, the barometer is dropping, fast. It is hurricane season, and whilst Heron Keys has suffered these before, no one has a single idea just what is coming in.

Lafaye has used a bit of artistic licence to bring together several threads and events that happened at broadly similar times. There is the frustration and anger of troops who were promised so much by politicians and received so little, there is the culture of segregation that was frankly poisonous and there is the looming presence of the hurricane that will bring disaster to the Florida Keys. I felt that the first 100 pages of so of the book dragged as the characters were introduced and the scenes were set. After that the book managed to raise the pace and was much better, with the swirl of trial and tribulations of the people of that small community. The description of the residents in the hurricane is pretty scary too as the storm releases its full power. The most terrifying thing is this that tale was all drawn from a set of true stories too. The plight of the troops was real, forced to work and not given the monies they were promised, the horror of segregation and the hurricane that decimated this part of Florida was one of the strongest recorded. Worth reading and a fitting tribute to those that died in this natural disaster.

There are pictures of the area, before and after, here: http://www.keyshistory.org/shelf1935hurr.html
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
PDCRead | 13 outras críticas | Apr 6, 2020 |
I have fond memories of Vanessa Lafaye's debut, Summertime, that I reviewed quite some time ago, so I positively jumped at the chance to read an early copy of her new novel, At First Light. As with Summertime, this is another novel based on real events that has you screaming in anger, clapping in delight and sobbing with devastation. Vanessa Lafaye is such a wonderfully talented author who creates such depth in her writing that ensures the characters bore into your very soul and remain there until the end of your days.

Alicia arrives in Key West on the boat from Cuba, somewhat under a cloud, although we need to invest a bit of time in the story before we learn the reason for her exile. She has come to live with her cousin, Beatriz, and work in her tea rooms but Alicia is shocked to find that her cousin answers to the name of Pearl and isn't known for serving tea in her establishment.

Also arriving in Key West is John Morales, returning from war in Europe. He finds much has changed in Key West as he returns to his rightful place behind the bar of The Last Resort, the establishment he owns right next door to Pearl's Tea Rooms. With such a close proximity to Alicia it isn't long before the pair fall in love and their story is as tragic as it is poignant because Alicia is brown and John is white. In an era when the Ku Klux Klan were sweeping America there are many who will strive to tear John and Alicia apart, using any means necessary, but theirs is a love that is destined never to die.

At First Light is another masterpiece from the pen of Vanessa Lafaye. It is shocking and heartbreaking to learn that this is based on a true story which makes it all the more poignant. I had goosebumps reading certain passages and applaud Vanessa Lafaye for bringing this period of history to light. In the current day and age of so much uncertainty and innumerable prejudices, it's a story that will resonate with so many people. An absolutely breathtaking masterpiece that will be going on my read again pile. Very highly recommended - I want to give it more than 5 stars!

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Michelle.Ryles | 3 outras críticas | Mar 9, 2020 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
3
Membros
139
Popularidade
#147,351
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
18
ISBN
37
Línguas
4

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