I Am the Light of This WorldMichael ParkerLabel: Algonquin BooksDescription: In the early 1970s in Stovall Texas seventeen-year-old Earl-a loner a dreamer a lover of music and words-meets and is quickly infatuated with Tina the new girl in town. She convinces Earl to drive her to see her mother in Austin where after a hazy night of partying Earl and Tina are separated. Two days later Earl is 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 support from his working-class family he is sentenced for a crime he did not commit.Forty years later Earl is released into an America so changed he can barely navigate it. Determined to have the life that was taken from him he settles in a small town on the Oregon coast and works to overcome the emotional toll of incarceration. But just as Earl finds a chance to begin again his past returns to endanger the new life he's built.Steeped in the music and atmosphere of the 1970s I Am the Light of This World is a gritty gripping and gorgeously written story of the impulsive choices of youth redemption mercy and the power of the imagination.
