A Light So Lovely
The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, Author of A Wrinkle in Time
- History & Biography
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Published: 2018
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Publisher's Description
Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time has captured the imagination of millions - from literary sensation to timeless classic and now a major motion picture starring Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Storm Reid, and Mindy Kaling. A Light So Lovely tells the story of the woman at the center of it all - her imagination, her faith, her pattern of defying categories, and what readers today can learn from her legacy. Bestselling and beloved author Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery winner for A Wrinkle in Time, was known the world round for her imaginative spirit and stories. She was also known to spark controversy - too Christian for some, too unorthodox for others. Somewhere in the middle was a complex woman whose embrace of paradox has much to say to a new generation of readers today. A Light So Lovely paints a vivid portrait of this enigmatic icon's spiritual legacy, starting with her inner world and expanding into fresh reflections of her writing for readers today. Listen in on intimate interviews with L'Engle's literary contemporaries such as Luci Shaw, L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, and influential fans such as Makoto Fujimura, Nikki Grimes, and Sarah Bessey, as they reveal new layers to the woman behind the stories we know and love. A vibrant, imaginative read, this book pulls back the curtain to illuminate L'Engle's creative journey, her persevering faith, and the inspiring, often unexpected ways these two forces converged. For anyone earnestly searching the space between sacred and secular, miracle and science, faith and art, come and find a kindred spirit and trusted guide in Madeleine - the Mrs Whatsit to our Meg Murry - as she sparks our imagination anew.
Endorsements (9)
“Madeleine was a true bridge builder; and if ever we’ve needed some, now is the time.”
“Many thanks to Sarah for capturing the beauty and complexity of Madeleine L’Engle who influenced millions of readers around the world to always light candles in the darkness.”
“Science and religion. Faith and fiction. The gift of both/and is the Madeleine L’Engle legacy I, and many a Christian creative, has benefitted from most, and Sarah Arthur’s A Light So Lovely takes a deep dive into the fullest meaning of L’Engle’s beautifully complex perspective, displayed in all of her work, but most famously in A Wrinkle in Time. Through Arthur’s insight, we see that L’Engle’s thinking makes room for the kind of wonder readers will want to hold on to. Why do we humans insist on codifying who and what God is, and who He is in us? In A Light So Lovely, Arthur explores the ways in which Madeleine L’Engle repeatedly pushed against this tendency and, in doing so, created stories that revealed a God without limits, one who we could trust implicitly at any age, and share openly without apology.”
“I’ve waited a long time for a book about Madeleine L’Engle’s spiritual legacy and A Light So Lovely was entirely worth the wait. In this book, Sarah Arthur explores L’Engle’s wide and generous spirituality with her bestselling books, her lectures, her public work, but wisely also with her relationships and her devoted readers’ (myself among them!) remembrances, all while placing her within the larger narrative of her time and place. A Light So Lovely beautifully and honestly illuminates illuminates one of the most important and creative writers of our time.”
“A compelling portrait of an author whose commitment to challenging our labels and categories, to bridging the imagined divide between sacred and secular, is as relevant today as ever.”
“What fun, and what a delight it is to gain these fresh and careful insights into the life of Madeleine L’Engle, literary icon and dear friend whose imagination and storytelling has become the stuff of legend! Through the narratives of the friends and family who knew and loved her, Sarah Arthur has used her vivid gifts of words and insights to bring Madeleine to life. Read, enjoy, and be enlarged by these stories.”
“This book has a secret. It’s a magic word—one so small you might overlook it. The word? And. It’s everywhere in this book, marking how Madeleine L’Engle reconciled what we have divided. Like L’Engle’s vision, Arthur’s book is for believers and unbelievers. Readers and writers. Fans of science fiction and romance. People of faith and people of science—and those who love both of those languages. Girls, boys, women, men—those in their forties and twenties, and who are also still five, capable of wide-eyed, childlike faith. This intimate introduction is so full of wisdom, it will rejuvenate newcomers to L’Engle’s work and her most faithful fans. I’m grateful for Arthur’s homage to a personal hero: It’s a joy to read and a reminder to live with wild imagination.”
“An eminently readable, deeply lyrical, and thoroughly necessary examination of a literary luminary in the context of her faith. Arthur helps illuminate illuminate not just L’Engle’s own writings but the wider promise of the Anglican tradition.”
“In A Light So Lovely, Sarah Arthur gives us the heart of Madeline L’Engle’s legacy, that the Christian life (like Christ’s life) is subversive and beautiful, and that hope is sometimes deceptively ordinary. We need this reminder now more than ever.”
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