IN the LIGHT of the SUN by Angela Shupe - Spotlight

 


Two sisters, separated by oceans and global conflict, are bonded through music and love in this new WWII novel, in the LIGHT of the SUN (Waterbrook)h.

The year is 1941, and in the Philippines, Caramina Grassi dreams of training in Italy to become an opera singer like her older sister, Rosa. But as war erupts, her world is shattered, forcing her to cling to the music that has always been her refuge. When her family’s lives are threatened and they are forced to flee to the jungle, she comes to understand that music is more than comfort. It becomes a muse that fuels her courage, sacrifice, and unwavering focus on the light.

Meanwhile, in Florence, just as Rosa Grassi’s long-awaited opera debut arrives, Mussolini tightens his grip on Italy. Drawn into la Resistenza, the underground resistance, Rosa feels lost in a fog of deception that clouds everything she thought to be true. In a time when family or friend could be foe, Rosa will learn that performing isn’t just for the stage. Facing a devastating betrayal, she must decide how far she’s willing to go to protect the one she loves.

Inspired by true events, In the Light of the Sun is an unforgettable story of sisterhood, hope, and the enduring power of music to uplift the human spirit—even in the darkest of times.


I live in Washington, D.C., but I’m really from the Midwest. The cold part of the Midwest.

I love books and art and politics and grammar and theater and music and video games and history and technology and all kinds of movies, especially monster movies and noir and spaghetti westerns and the Marx Brothers.

I have a lot of literary heroes.  A partial list: Virginia Woolf, Diana Wynne Jones, Kelly Link, Matt Bell, Karen Russell, Carmen Maria Machado, Zora Neale Hurston, Lu Xun, Italo Calvino, Yoko Ogawa, Wallace Stevens, Blake Butler, Susan Cooper, Robert Kloss, Mo Yan, Phillip K. Dick,  E. Nesbitt, Ellen Raskin, Faulkner, Ben Loory, Melville, Marlon James, Beckett, Alexander Chee, Laura van den Berg, Harold Pinter, Shirley Jackson, Muriel Spark, Mavis Gallant, Clarice Lispector, Dorothy Sayers, Dostoyevsky, Ashbery, Ionesco, Aase Berg, Karen Blixen, Kafka, Woolf, Fitzgerald, Hopkins, Sasha Fletcher, Borges. And a million others.

My political hero is the late Senator Paul Wellstone. My favorite superhero is Batman. My favorite filmmaker is Agnes Varda. My favorite color is pink. I am a raging feminist.

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