Critically acclaimed author Michael Parker tells the searing and unforgettable story of one decision that irrevocably changes the course of a young man’s life.
In the early 1970’s, in Stovall, Texas, 17-year-old Earl—loner, dreamer, lover of music and words—meets Tina, the new girl in town. Tina convinces Earl to drive her to see her mother in Austin, where Earl and Tina are quickly separated. Two days later, Earl is back home, being questioned by the police about Tina’s disappearance and the blood in the trunk of his car. But Earl can’t remember what happened in Austin, and with little financial support from his working-class family, he is sentenced for a crime he did not commit.
Forty years later, Earl is released into a technologically-dominated world he can barely navigate. He settles in a small town on the Oregon coast and attempts to establish a sense of freedom from both bars and razor-wire and the emotional toll of incarceration, befriending an eccentric ex-lawyer and her family and friends. But just as he finds the rhythm he’s always sought, that freedom is thwarted.
Steeped in the music and carefree atmosphere of the 1970’s, I Am the Light of This World is a gritty, gripping, and gorgeously written story of loss, redemption, and the power of the imagination.
Forthcoming from Algonquin – November, 2022
Advance Praise for I Am the Light of This World:
I Am the Light of This World is as true and moving a book, as honest, as gripping, as any I have ever read. I continue to be haunted by this tragic novel--its note-perfect depiction of clueless youth, its bad breaks, bad choices, bewilderments and quirks, and, above all, the small moments of mercy that give hope in the midst of a hopeless situation. How do you piece together a broken life that wasn't much in the way of whole to begin with? With a career's worth of powerhouse fiction already in the books, Michael Parker has delivered his strongest work yet. I Am the Light of This World is a novel of truly singular beauty and wisdom.
Ben Fountain, author of Brief Encounters with Che Guevara and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award
A gut punch of a novel—lyrical, mordantly funny and wrenching.
Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners, Get in Trouble, 2018 MacArthur Fellow, Finalist for Pulitzer Prize
Earl Boudreaux, the protagonist of Michael Parker's stunning new novel is one of the great inventions in recent fiction. Watching this beautiful dreamer get lost in a netherworld where fate, and drastic human error are disastrously intertwined, I realized that "Earl" is just another word for the hopeful, hopeless, yearning, worn-out soul of America. Parker is just flat out astonishing.
Marisa Silver, author of The Mysteries, Little Nothing, Mary Coin
I Am the Light of This World is a grimy, gutsy, glorious, novel and one of my favorite books in recent memory. Somehow, Michael Parker channeled the ghosts of Kent Haruf and Harry Crews (the good angel and the bad) to write this literary gem which is as lowdown and gritty as it is graceful and profound. An unforgettable novel that sings out on every page.
Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs and Godspeed
From the opening sentence on, I was transfixed, locked into the phonic level of Earl’s world and somehow magically both rooted and flying. I don’t know how Michael Parker does it. There is the rhythm of the sentences and the deep attention to sensory details but there is also something even more ineffable going on here. This novel is incredible. Read it! Read it! Read it!"
Mesha Maren, author of Sugar Run and Perpetual West
Michael Parker’s latest is a haunting story of how easily life can go off the rails. This book made me thank my lucky stars on every riveting page, as it simultaneously had me outraged at the ravening gyre of uneven justice and circumstance. I Am The Light of This World finds Parker working in profundities both deeply spiritual and relevant.
Smith Henderson, author of Fourth of July Creek and Make Them Cry