In the Wild Light

Chapter 1

The human eye can discern more shades of green than of any other color. My friend Delaney told me that. She said it s an adaptation from when ancient humans lived in forests. Our eyes evolved that way as a survival mechanism to spot predators hiding in the vegetation.

There are as many tinges of understanding as there are hues of green in a forest. 

Some things are easy to understand. There s a natural logic, a clear cause and effect. Like how an engine works. When I was eleven, my papaw pulled the engine out of his Chevy pickup and took it apart, letting me help him rebuild it. He laid the pieces out--reeking of dark oil and scorched steel--on a torn and greasy sheet, like the bones of an unearthed dinosaur. As we worked, he explained the function of each piece and what it contributed to make the engine run. It made sense, how he said it. 

He wasn t sick then. Later, when he was, I understood that when he used to say Don t nobody live forever when accepting another piece of his sister Betsy s chess pie, that wasn t just a phrase he used. That was when he still had an appetite. 

Now his appetite has moved to his lungs, which are always starved for air. His breathing has the keening note of the wind blowing over something sharp. It s always there, which means he has something sharp inside him. People can t live long with sharp things in them. I understand this. 

Some things I understand without understanding them. Like how the Pigeon River moves and pulses like a living creature, never the same twice when I m on it, which is as often as I can be. Or how sometimes you can stand in a quiet parking lot on a hot afternoon and perfectly envision what it would have looked like there before humankind existed. I do this often. It brings me comfort but I don t understand why. 

Other things I don t understand at all. 

How Delaney Doyle s mind works, for example.

JEFF ZENTNER is the author of the New York Times Notable Book The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, and Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee. He has won the William C. Morris Award, Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, International Literacy Association Award, Westchester Fiction Award, been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and UKLA, and was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize and Indies Choice Award. He was a Publishers Weekly Flying Start and an Indies Introduce pick. Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville with his wife and son. You can visit him online at jeffzentnerbooks.com and on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

"A moving and rich novel about friendship, loss, kind strangers, the blindness so often present in the pursuit of love, and love itself.  His protagonists have their eyes raised to the sky." Daniel Woodrell for The New York Times Book Review

Vitally redefines friendship as something that must be protected, sacrificed for, and tended to with wisdom, patience, and love and, to our luck, rendered in Zentner s gem-like sentences. Ocean Vuong, New York Times bestselling author of On Earth We re Briefly Gorgeous
 
In a word: sublime. This gift of a book will leave you with fiery, incandescent hope in your chest. Emily Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read   
 
A novel with the soul of a poem. Jeff Zentner proves yet again that he's one of the most luminous voices writing for young people today.   Randy Ribay, author of National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing
 
An ode to the healing power of nature and art, but also a testament to the beauty of family both blood and created. No one else can write like Jeff Zentner.   Silas House, New York Times bestselling author of Southernmost and Same Sun Here

With profound, evocative prose and lyrical insights into the world surrounding a struggling main character, Zentner's powerful, emotional novel is one you won't soon forget. Buzzfeed

 "A brilliant treasure of a book that holds up a mirror to the best parts of our humanity."  Kirkus Reviews, starred review

 "Evocative and moving, highlighting Zentner s impressive skill with both poetry and prose." Publishers Weekly, starred review

  A wise, gorgeous exploration of loss and survival that will make readers cry...Lyrical and heartbreaking. School Library Journal, starred review

 "Heartfelt and deeply moving...a book that readers will