For fans of Behold the Dreamers, immigrant stories, and family sagas, this compelling novel revolves around a tightly bound Nigerian family living in Florida, exploring the wounds passed down from generation to generation.

When 276 schoolgirls are abducted from their school in Nigeria, Fidelis Ewerike, a Florida-based barrister, poet, and former POW of the Nigerian Civil War, begins to go mad. He is consumed by memories of his younger sister Ugochi, who went missing during that conflict. Overwhelmed by survivor’s guilt and fearful for his sixteen-year-old daughter Amara, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Ugochi, Fidelis locks her in her bedroom, offering no words of explanation, only lovingly—if poorly—made meals and sweets.

As the family spirals into chaos, his wife Adaobi seeks the counsel of a preacher, praying for liberation from what she believes is a curse plaguing their family since leaving Nigeria. Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Chuk battles with neighborhood boys, learning harsh lessons about force, masculinity, and his tenuous position within the family.

Rebellious and resentful, Amara longs for freedom. When she escapes her imprisonment, she falls in love with Maksym Kostyk, the son of the town drunk, rather than the Aba-born engineer-in-training her mother had hoped for. Together, they plan to run away from their familial traumas.

A Season of Light is an all-consuming masterpiece by Julie Iromuanya. To peer into the Ewerike family’s lives is a profound gift.