ABOUT THE NOVEL:

A twelve-year-old boy lives with his family in a small, poverty-stricken town in Vermont. His father works at a manufacturing plant, his mother is a homemaker, and his fifteen-year-old brother is about to enter high school. His family has gained enough financial stability to move out of the nearby trailer park, and as conflict rages abroad, his father’s job at a weapons manufacturing plant appears safe. But then his mother is diagnosed with cancer, and everything changes.

Set over the course of one propulsive summer, Soon the Light Will Be Perfect chronicles the journey of two brothers on the cusp of adulthood, a town battered by poverty and a family at a breaking point. In spare, fiercely honest prose, Dave Patterson captures what it feels like to be gloriously, violently alive at a moment of political, social and familial instability.

Purchase the novel from Print: A Bookstore, one of Portland, Maine’s premiere independent booksellers.

PRAISE FOR THE NOVEL:

“Soon The Light Will Be Perfect is so deeply moving because it is so achingly true.  You will not soon forget these people, this place.” -Richard Russo, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Empire Falls

“Stunning debut.” –New York Post

“Soon the Light will be Perfect is as unexpected and beautiful as a rainbow over a junkyard. It is a pitch-perfect novel. Cinematic and gritty, rugged and fragile, wickedly wry and heartbreakingly sad. This is a book for sinners and saints alike. A glorious mash-up of The Outsiders, David Sedaris, and Andre Dubus. I devoured this wonderful, wonderful debut novel and have become already impatient to read Patterson’s next book.” -Nickolas Butler, internationally bestselling author of Shotgun Lovesongs and The Hearts of Men

“Soon the Light Will Be Perfect is a heartbreaking, gently wrought story about reckonings: with adulthood, faith, love, and death.” –BuzzFeed

“Devastating, beautiful, worth it.” –New York Public Library

“Patterson’s spare style and his ability to touch on conflicts and tensions without always resolving them makes the novel a beautiful exploration of what it means to come of age in difficult circumstances.” –Portland Press Herald

“Dave Patterson’s Soon the Light Will Be Perfect is a striking debut novel from a writer whose eye for the poignancy of childhood and family is second to none. This foray with a young man on the verge of adolescence showcases the unique pressures of class, illness, and faith in small-town Vermont rife with broken dreams and missed opportunities. This is a novel that will seize your heart.” -Michael Nye, author of All the Castles Burned

“This is a deceptively simple novel trending deep in the human heart. Patterson makes you want to jump into the story and hug the hell out of his characters.” -Dan McCarthy, Library Director, Searsmont Library, Searsmont, Maine

“Dave Patterson delivers a coming-of-age tale thick with the smell of stale cigarette smoke, chemical-sweet fabric softener, cat piss, and polyurethane all lingering in the air of a densely humid New England summer. It’s a story of conflicted Catholic pubescence brought to bear in moments of staggering poetic realism that’ll have you dizzy with anticipation and leave you wanting more.” -Michael Macomber, owner of Elements: Books Coffee Beer, Biddeford, Maine

To inquire about a speaking engagement or a media request contact Laura Gianino at Harper Collins: laura.gianino@harpercollins.com.