The Sun Was Electric Light
Title: The Sun Was Electric Light
Author: Rachel Morton
Publisher: University of Queensland Press
Shortlist: Fiction
Disillusioned with her life in New York, Ruth returns to a lake town in Guatemala where she had been happy a decade earlier. There, in Panajachel, she meets two very different women: the calm and practical Emilie, and the turbulent and intoxicating Carmen.
Deciding to stay and build a life at the lake, Ruth finds work first as a nanny to a wealthy local family, then as an English teacher at a village school. Meanwhile, she becomes increasingly infatuated by her friendship with Carmen, pushing away the stability of her connection with Emilie. As Carmen’s fragile relationship with the world splinters, the difference between being a visitor and truly belonging becomes clear and Ruth is forced to act.
The Sun Was Electric Light is a sublime novel about searching for belonging and a life that makes sense.
Judges’ Report
The Sun Was Electric Light is a book that happens to you: its quiet, transformative power like an incantation or a prayer. How do we find connection and a meaningful life? And how can we know if we’re on the right path when we remain a mystery, even to ourselves? When Ruth returns to Panajachel, a lake town in Guatemala where she remembers once being happy a decade ago, she is alone. Her days are a series of small, pleasant but somehow distant tasks: a swim in the lake, coffee and tortillas, a drink at the bar. She meets two very different women: the sturdy and reliable Emilie, and Carmen, who is a dangerous, charming rush. She finds and loses work, makes art, moves house, ponders what it means to belong. To read this book is to consider the Rilke quote, ‘The world is large, but in us it is deep as the sea.’ A work of clear-eyed asceticism that asks more questions than it answers, the judges were struck by its existential grace. In spare, pure prose, Morton has invented a work that makes its home inside us.
Extract
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About the Author
Photo by TJ Garvie
Rachel Morton
VPLA book photography by Shannyn Higgins
The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards are proudly supported by the Victorian Government.
