Sunlit Night is breezy, like a good summer read; yet thought provoking, humorous and at times dark. This is the debut novel by Rebecca Dinerstein and is an impressive first effort. It’s the story of strange and estranged families, and in particular, two young adults who must find themselves despite their familial dysfunction.

Early in the novel, we discover Frances and Yasha, both New Yorkers, in separate tales. Frances, a neurotic recent college graduate dealing with romantic heartbreak and a flawed family, decides to accept an artist’s apprenticeship in Norway (above the Arctic Circle) to escape the oppressiveness of Manhattan and create space between herself and all that is familiar to her. Yasha, a Russian immigrant, has just graduated high school and works side by side with his father in their Brighton Beach bakery. Abandoned ten years earlier by his mother, she makes a mysterious reappearance and breaks his father’s heart all over again - literally.  His father’s last wish is to be buried at the top of the world, which is where Frances’s and Yasha’s lives intersect.