CHILD OF LIGHT

In Bender’s historical novel, a sensitive girl awakens to her spiritual gifts in late-19th-century New York.

In 1896 13-year-old Ambrétte Memenon, the daughter of French immigrants, is newly arrived in Utica, New York, and resides in the first residential home in the city to get electricity. Her father, referred to as Papa, is an electrical scientist who has worked with some of the greatest minds of his generation, including Nicola Tesla. Her mother, called Maman, believes in spiritualism—she’s convinced that “spirits live around us, just as neighbors do. The dead are near us at all times.” Ambrétte’s older brother, Georges, works alongside their father and is gradually maturing into adulthood. Ambrétte feels disconnected from her surroundings and senses a deep rift between her parents—in a recurring metaphor that draws upon her parents’ interests in electricity and spiritualism, she longs to be the conduit that reconnects them. Ambrétte begins preparing for a séance that she hopes will reveal her link to the spirit world (she communes with ghosts) and bring positive attention to her mother. Maman becomes sick, suffering “spells” that she believes are the result of “an animal spirit deep inside her,” leaving her increasingly bedridden. In the wake of this illness and several profound losses, Ambrétte must determine how her spiritual gifts will help her find a place in the world. While the author mostly sticks to a close third-person perspective following Ambrétte, the text also includes intriguing ephemera like excerpts from Maman’s spiritualist texts, a short story shared by a maid, and a note written by a friend. In keeping with the spiritualist theme, the story moves fluidly through time, jumping backward on several occasions to fill in the story of the Memenons (in particular, Papa's history as an electrical scientist). Bender gracefully conveys how the currents of the times and the influence of parents shape a young mind, and in Ambrétte the author has created a memorable character.

Patient, perceptive, and charged with a quiet emotional power.