She doesn’t give up, but keeps looking for ways to stay sharp.' 'What stays with the reader is gutsiness, her imagination and fortitude. Anna Lyndsey is both close observer and philosopher, capable of describing her world and also of pondering what it signifies.' reveals the quiet, ingenious consciousness of a poet. A gorgeous writer of rare honesty and wit.' It brings us to an extraordinary place from which we emerge to see the light and the world anew. Girl in the Dark is a tale of an unimaginable fate that becomes a transcendent love story.

But even impossible lives, she learns, endure. One day Anna had an ordinary life, and then the unthinkable happened. And through it all there is Pete, her love and her rock, without whom her loneliness seems boundless. During periods of relative remission, she can venture out cautiously at dawn and dusk into a world that, from the perspective of her cloistered existence, is filled with remarkable beauty. Now, at the worst times, Anna is forced to spend months on end in a blacked-out room, where she loses herself in audiobooks and elaborate word games in an attempt to ward off despair. Then what started as a mild intolerance to certain kinds of artificial light developed into a severe sensitivity to all light. Anna asks herself 'By continuing to occupy this lovely man while giving him neither children nor a public companion nor a welcoming home - do I do wrong?' Anna brings us into the dark with her, a place from which we emerge to see love, and the world, anew.Haunting, lyrical, unforgettable, Girl in the Dark is a brave new memoir of a life without light.Īnna Lyndsey was young and ambitious and worked hard she had just bought an apartment she was falling in love. But she cannot enjoy a normal life with him, cannot go out in the day, and even making love is uniquely awkward. In many ways he is Anna's savior, offering her shelter from the light in his home. And throughout there is her relationship with Pete. During periods of relative remission she can venture cautiously out at dawn and dusk, into a world that, from the perspective of her normally cloistered existence, is filled with remarkable beauty. Now, when her symptoms are at their worst, she must spend months on end in a blacked-out room, losing herself in audio books and elaborate word games in an attempt to ward off despair. The reaction soon spread to her entire body. Soon this progressed to an intolerance of fluorescent light, then of sunlight itself. But then she started to develop worrying symptoms: her face felt like it was burning whenever she was in front of the computer. She was ambitious and worked hard she had just bought an apartment she was falling in love.

Girl in the Dark by Anna Lyndsey