Product Description

“Why didn’t you have your headlights on?” . . . I couldn’t tell him about the light in November. When it’s easy not to notice the first signs of dusk. When shapes suddenly lose their edges and a girl moving quickly from behind a stationary bus, moving in the fading light, in the rain, in the November gloom, may be a ghost, a spirit, something from the Underworld, a phantom from out of my own mind.”

On a quiet road just outside London, in the blue half-light of dusk, a fatal car accident takes the life of thirteen-year-old Laura Jenkins, and her death changes the lives of two families forever. For Jack Philips, a married police officer with two small daughters, the consequences of that evening behind the wheel will force him to reassess everything he loves and to confront long-buried secrets from his past. For Lisa Jenkins, the loss of her daughter seems unbearable. As she struggles to find the courage to rebuild her life, her husband grows ever more reclusive, and Laura’s presence continues to haunt her. Eventually, Lisa’s and Jack’s paths cross in surprising and shocking ways.

In this heartbreaking and redemptive novel, Elizabeth Diamond explores the ripple effects of a single moment of tragedy—the journey from guilt to peace, from vengeance to forgiveness, from sorrow to hope—and even, ultimately, to joy. An Accidental Light is a tender and deeply affecting story that is not easily forgotten.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1075768 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-03
• Released on: 2009-02-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 6.20" w x 9.40" l, 1.10 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781590513019
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
Kirkus Reviews

“…matter-of-fact, precise prose and edgy characterizations…”

Publishers Weekly

“… a heartbreaking journey into the aftermath of tragedy.”

Curled Up with a Good Book

"Author Elizabeth Diamond beautifully moves between Jack and Lisa’s voices, exposing their layers of grief and loss in a story that seems to literally bleed with revenge and bittersweet hurt. The author digs deep into the interior lives of her two major players, exploring the redemptive power of loss and of love even as time 'slips like sand through the sieve,' bringing back the past."

Library Journal

"This first novel by British poet Diamond combines realistic themes with a suggestion of the paranormal...Diamond's remarkable talent lies in the engaging immediacy of her characters' voices: we find ourselves compelled by the mundane details of people pulling their lives together."

About the Author
Elizabeth Diamond

Elizabeth Diamond lives in Devon, England. An Accidental Light is her first novel, for which she received a British Arts Council grant. She has just finished her second novel.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
There’s clock time where seconds mount up to minutes and minutes to hours. Where day changes to night and weeks build to months and months to a year, and the years play out on your face and in your thickening waist. The time most of us live in.
Then there’s the other sort. It has no limits. It reels you backwards without warning, spins you young again on a whim. It can be triggered by anything: a fragment of music, a scent on the air. Or a child moving in a blue school uniform in the rain. It claims you in dreams, on the borders of sleep, even in your waking moments when you think you’re safe.
A child moved out suddenly from the rear of a bus, ran in a blue smudge of uniform through the misted rain, moved out from that forward linear tick-tock time into the other, where she’s caught forever, like a broken leaf in a whirlpool current. I’ve seen her a thousand times. Running through the blue shadows in the rain. Stopped by a screech of brakes and my voice shouting. Stopped by the sudden boom of my heart.

Her name was Laura. I found that out later in the station. Bob Lees was on duty that night. He sat me down in the interview room, fetched me a coffee, and handed me a cigarette. I’d given up months ago but none of that mattered now–my old life wiped out now like a cloth wiping a smudge from glass.

Customer Reviews

Do You Believe in Ghosts?
Do you Believe in Ghosts?

In "An Accidental Light" a first novel by Elizabeth Diamond, one of the two, first-person protagonists, British policeman Jack Philips, accidentally kills a young girl, Laura Jenkins, and then begins to see her ghost. It is in therapy that Jack begins to fill in the holes of his own past, discovering things about himself that he had suppressed for years.

The other protagonist is Laura's mother, Lisa; she also sees Laura's ghost. In her grief she contacts a medium who brings up memories of her deceased father. Then, over the course of the following year, things happen to Jack and to Lisa that would never have happened had not the deadly accident occurred; they are both set upon a journey. Is Laura's coordinating some of this from "beyond"?

"An Accidental Light" is a simple, relate-able story of grief, guilt and atonement with some compelling Magic Realism thrown in. A question lingers after the book is completed and the story is told...why doesn't Jack tell Lisa what he saw?

Excellent debut...
I think the best books are those that grab you on the first page and never let go. AN ACCIDENTAL LIGHT is just such a book.

On a rainy November evening at dusk, policeman Jack Phillips is driving home after work and a pint at the pub, when 13 year-old Laura Jenkins runs out in front of his car from behind a bus. Jack hits her and she dies. There was nothing he could do. It truly was accident. This moment sets off a chain of events that will completely alter not only Jack's life, but the lives of Lisa and Derek, Laura's parents.

The story is told in the voices of Jack and Lisa. Jack tells his story in a journal he's writing for his therapist. Lisa addresses her story to Laura. Each struggling with what has happened. Jack quits his job. Lisa asks her husband to leave. Both need to reconnect with family. Both have "seen" Laura.

While on the surface one might assume this is a ghost story, it is not. Yes, the sightings of Laura play an integral part in the story, but ultimately this is a story about love, grief, sorrow and forgiveness. Most importantly, it is a book about moving on after a tragedy occurs. Author Elizabeth Diamond has done a wonderful job in bringing these characters to life. I honestly got a great sense of what each character was feeling. It always amazes me when an author can make me feel like fictional characters are actually part of my own life and Diamond did that here.

The writing is wonderful. I was riveted to the book and never list interest. Elizabeth Diamond has written a remarkable debut novel with AN ACCIDENTAL LIGHT. I look forward to reading her next novel.

Dark, Gloomy, Pretty Realistic, Decently Written
***mild spoilers***
It's more a literature thing than a nice relaxing book to curl up with. I'm not a big fan of gloomy things, so I'm not even sure why I chose it. It's a completely predictable book. You know pretty much before cracking the book open that several marriages are gonna get toasted, obviously someone dies, and people are going to have their lives turned upside down... what isn't all spelled out until you read to about pg 50 is who hooks up with whom... though again, highly predictable.

It's decently written, only one major typo, but I got the advanced reader's copy, so hopefully that gaff was spotted before the final printing.

Definitely character driven. I suppose it has to be since the actual plot is probably all spelled out for you on the back cover copy. I didn't really care for the characters, but they had an authentic feel to them.

Probably why I found the book so depressing is that it speaks of mediums and ghost sightings like that's the answer, or at least an answer to how one can find peace from those "friends" who have left this world.