Sixteen-year-old Mattie Gokey has big dreams but little hope of seeing them come true. Desperate for money, she takes a job at the Glenmore, where hotel guest Grace Brown entrusts her with the task of burning a secret bundle of letters. But when Grace's drowned body is fished from the lake, Mattie discovers that the letters could reveal the grim truth behind a murder.Set in 1906 against the backdrop of the murder that inspired Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, Jennifer Donnelly's astonishing debut novel effortlessly weaves romance, history, and a murder mystery into something moving, and real, and wholly original.

I just finished reading Jennifer Donnelly's "A Northern Light" and all I have to say is WHOA!! I know I'm very late in reading this book, but I loved that it made me laugh and cry. Mattie's voice is amazing and real. It touched my heart.

Makes me hope beyond hope that I'll write with that much feeling one day.

Cheers!