About the Author Jennifer Down is a writer and editor. She was named a Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year consecutively in 2017 and 2018. Our Magic Hour, her debut novel, was shortlisted for the 2014 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. Her second book, Pulse Points, was the winner of the 2018 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the 2018 Steele Rudd Award for a Short Story Collection in the Queensland Literary Awards, and was shortlisted for a 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Award. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne. Product Description WINNER OF THE 2022 MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARDShortlisted, Fiction, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, 2022 Shortlisted, Stella Prize, 2022 Shortlisted, Fiction, The Age Book of the Year Award, 2022 Shortlisted, Barbara Jefferis Award, 2022 Shortlisted, Adult crime novels, Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards, 2022"Mesmerising, uncompromising and extraordinary. A whole life is in these pages."―Robbie Arnott, author of The Rain HeronA quiet, small-town existence. An unexpected Facebook message, jolting her back to the past. A history she’s reluctant to revisit: dark memories and unspoken trauma, bruised thighs and warning knocks on bedroom walls, unfathomable loss.She became a new person a long time ago. What happens when buried stories are dragged into the light?This epic novel from the two-time Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year is a masterwork of tragedy and heartbreak―the story of a life in full. Sublimely wrought in devastating detail, Bodies of Light confirms Jennifer Down as one of the writers defining her generation. Review "A remarkably empathic book…a life that the reader cannot deny." - Guardian"An ambitious novel that explores the psychological fallout of a life that has gone wrong from the start…Down is one of Australia’s most promising young writers." - Saturday Paper"A story of a woman’s remarkable resilience, the possibility of human kindness, and the necessity of hope…Intelligently, tenderly restrained." - Australian Book Review"Bodies of Light is an assured second novel, from the mind of a writer who has taken the time to really think through what she wants to express in a novel, and how she wants the reader to feel as they go through it…It is laden with emotions and gorgeous images and is unafraid of sentimentality. Reading this book is like getting sucked up into a blanket, and when you emerge out of the cocoon, the world around you looks a bit different. Or maybe, you look at it differently, with a bit more care, I think." - Sydney Review of Books"Mesmerising, uncompromising and extraordinary. A whole life is in these pages." - Robbie Arnott, author of The Rain Heron"An ambitious novel…that sees Down demonstrate her imaginative range and take risks…The result is a daring and compelling work, suffused with pathos and an impressive degree of empathic vulnerability." - 2022 Stella Prize judges’ report