“Fourteen-year-old Laurel Long does something unimaginable. In a house at the back end of Woods Road, she commits an act of violence that alters the course of her life. Laurel finds herself living in Stephenville, a small town on Newfoundland's west coast, trapped in a system of poverty and generational neglect.”
Woods Road named in publisher copy as the precise opening setting; Stephenville is the dominant town setting, with in-text description quoted in The Fiddlehead. Won the 2022 BMO Winterset Award.
Chris Benjamin, 'A Richly Layered Study of Poverty and Trauma,' The Fiddlehead; Breakwater Books publisher page — source
The Raw Light of Morning is a powerful debut novel about women and children finding humour and love in the aftermath of domestic violence. Fourteen-year-old Laurel Long commits an act of violence that transforms her life and relocates to Stephenville on Newfoundland's west coast, where she confronts poverty, generational neglect, and trauma. Education becomes her pathway forward, but when her past resurfaces, she must determine what lengths she'll go to protect herself and those she loves. source
