Light Years
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4.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
He went to school to learn how to kill me. The Israeli girl who ruined his life. Seven people were killed instead. A single mother of two. A computer programmer. Two college students. A grandmother and her four-year-old grandson sharing an ice cream. And Dov, my boyfriend, my heart, the man I wanted to marry, who was there waiting for me.
Maya leaves Israel to study astronomy at the University of Virginia, running from the violence, guilt, and memories of her past. As the narrative switches between Virginia and Israel, we learn about Maya’s life as a soldier, her ambiguous devotion to Israel, and her love for her boyfriend, Dov, who is tragically killed in a suicide bombing. Now, in Virginia, amid the day-to-day pressures of classes, roommates, and fraternity parties, Maya attempts to reconcile her Israeli past with her American future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Because Maya Laor, who narrates, happens to be running late for a date in Tel Aviv, she narrowly escapes being killed by a suicide bomber. Instead, her boyfriend Dov, who is waiting for her in a restaurant, dies in the explosion. To escape reminders of Dov's death and other acts of violence that continue to plague her nation, Maya leaves Israel to attend an American university. However, even on a peaceful Southern campus among students eager to be her friend, Maya can't let go of the fear, grief and guilt that have become a heavy burden. In this sensitively wrought first novel, Stein alternates flashbacks of Maya's experiences as an Israeli soldier and the events that lead to the bombing, with more reflective scenes on the quiet campus of the University of Virginia. Interfusing the past with the present, the author explores both the cause and effect of Maya's psychological turmoil, revealing why the teen feels personally responsible for her boyfriend's death and showing how, once in America, Maya resists becoming involved in intimate relationships in order to avoid getting hurt again. Stein's sensitive treatment of intense subject matter and her compassionate depiction of a scarred survivor make this book a moving and insightful novel. Ages 14-up.
