Range of Light: A Novel - Softcover

"Shaped by the rhythms of a walk through nature, this gentle, thoughtful novel explores what's too often ignored: the life-long bonds of women's friendship." -Andrea Barrett "Range of Light is Valerie Miner's most skillful novel yet. Her exploration of the dynamics between two friends is subtle, profoundly moving, and true. Miner's stunning descriptions of these mountains map a mysterious upland world. It made me want to buy some hiking boots and get going!" -Lisa Alther

Two old friends who have not seen each other for decades spend a week hiking through the stunning scenery of California's High Sierra Twenty-five years ago, a group of five high schoolers trekked through the High Sierra. Now, two of them-lesbian Kath and straight Adele-come back to repeat their journey and renew their friendship. In chapters that alternate between the women's voices, they reveal their pasts, their thoughts, and their reactions both to the scenery and to each other. For Kath, the sublime topography of the Sierra is inspiring and invigorating. Adele is more trepidatious. Over the course of their journey up to High Country, old stories, tensions, dreams, and disappointments come to the surface. A unique study of the complexity of the bonds between women, this transporting book, written with elegance and restraint, is among Miner's finest work.