As the sun starts slowly disappearing the residents of a remote town in the desert find
themselves undergoing shocking transformations in this dazzlingly eerie and bewitching novel
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of 2025 'A supremely confident and gifted writer' Katie
Kitamura In Five Poems Lake a town surrounded by impenetrable deserts the sun is slowly
disappearing overhead. A young woman keeps an apprehensive eye on the sky above as she tends
her family's pharmacy of traditional medicine. She has few customers and even fewer visitors.
Her father was found dead by the lake twelve years ago in unexplained circumstances. Her elder
sister Dong Ji works at a wellness parlour across town for those who can afford it - which
during these strange and difficult days is not many. The town fell on hard times long before
the sun began to shrink. But now as the temperature drops and the lake freezes over the
inhabitants of the town realise there is no way they can survive. When the Beacons appear -
ordinary people with heads replaced by searing blinding light like miniature suns - the
residents wonder if they may hold the answer to their salvation or if they are just another
sign of impending ruin. Soon Dong Ji and her sister will uncover a photograph which may offer
a clue in the mystery of the Beacons and finally help them learn what happened to their
father. READERS LOVE SUNBIRTH 'A bittersweet moving and strange ... about what it means to
truly live' 'Very beautiful serene and thoughtfu l' 'If you liked I Who Have Never Known Men
... then this might be your next 5 star read ' 'If you've enjoyed Yoko Ogawa this one may be
for you' PRAISE FOR AN YU ' Rich and wild ... it gets under your skin' Observer ' Profound
' Guardian ' Beautiful ' New Statesman ' Seductive ' Daily Mail ' Spellbinding ' New York
Times ' Steeped in atmosphere ' Mail on Sunday
