num_pages: 383
description: An incredible and brilliant coming-of -age drama set at the turn-of-the-century in the USA and based on a real murder. When Mattie is given the letters by a guest at the hotel in which she has a summer job she thinks that the giver is simply upset. But the next day when the woman is found drowned in Big Moose Lake Mattie has to decide if she will read the letters, or burn them as the woman requested. But Mattie has problems enough of her own as she is growing up and trying to decide on her future. Her desire to be a writer and her dreams of life outside the small rural community in which she has always lived are beginning to overwhelm her. Will Mattie make it away from home? Will she leave the family and boyfriend who both love and smother her? Will she be like her friend and settle to married life or like her other friend and mentor the poet Ms Wilcox. Slowly the two stories merge to one amazing conclusion as Mattie finds the courage to make very important decisions. Set in 1906 and built around the real life murder of a young woman in a popular holiday resort this novel is touching, surprising, moving and compelling.
language: English
title: A Gathering Light
titlecomplete: A Gathering Light
characters: Beth Gokey, Emily Wilcox, Tommy Hubbard, Royal Loomis, Grace Brown, Lou Gokey, Michael Gokey, Mattie Gokey, Weaver Smith, Abby Gokey
genres: Fiction, Historical, Young Adult Historical Fiction, Coming Of Age, Mystery, Teen, Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction, Audiobook
ratings_count: 43671
places: Adirondack Mountains, New York, New York (State)
awards: awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Borders Original Voices Award
category: YA or Independent Reader, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Los Angeles Times Book Prize
category: Young Adult Literature, awardedAt: 1072944000000
name: Michael L. Printz Award, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Charlotte Award, awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Rhode Island Teen Book Award, awardedAt: 1230796800000
name: Lincoln Award, awardedAt: 1041408000000
name: Carnegie Medal, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Gateway Readers Award
publisher: A&C Black