My review of Mark Jacobs’ literary fiction novel Silent Light was published this week in the Colorado Review. Here is a snippet:
“In this epic journey through brutalized, fractured communities within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, award-winning writer Mark Jacobs presents an intense and poignant novel of vulnerable outsiders at the peripheries of hell navigating inter-ethnic quarrels, government corruption, and the aftereffects of European imperialism. Jacobs, a former foreign service officer, is a prolific short story writer and author of six books, one of which won the Maria Thomas Fiction Award. His newest, Silent Light, offers a suspenseful though frequently harrowing account of a valiant displaced American and a Congolese orphan brought together by chance, braving the harsh complexities of a region tarnished by disease, disaster, and several decades of rampant violence.
Ruthless, challenging, and haunting, Silent Light is also a redemptive tale of integrity and accountability. Just as Sister Placide atones for the sins of her father, Smith is answerable for his country’s offenses. His passport is proof of his guilt, and his ignorance is a further afront. It’s his duty to brave the American nightmare, to bend and break and suffer Hades in order to see the light. In Jacobs’ hands, the light dazzles, and through enlightening dialogue and emotive, gut-wrenching situations he ensures that Smith’s epic, life-changing journey will linger in the memory.”
I’ve been fortunate to read much of Mark Jacobs’ fiction. He’s a very creative writer of short stories, and he has contributed many powerful tales to literary journals, including the Lowestoft Chronicle. This longer work is one of the most gripping and highly moving books I’ve read in years, so it’s pleasing to have been able to assess it for the Colorado Review.
You can read the full review here: https://coloradoreview.colostate.edu/reviews/silent-light/