From the Bookshelf of Apocalypse Whenever…

The Sunlight Pilgrims

Jenni Fagan

Start date: June 20, 2018

Finish date: July 1, 2018

Discussion: AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

Why we're reading this: Read in June to discuss in July, starting on the first: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...…more
[close] Read in June to discuss in July, starting on the first: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

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AW BOOK CLUB (spoilers)

* What is a good book for AW discussion? (Nominations pool)
By Gertie · 65 posts · 218 views

last updated Oct 18, 2025 05:31PM

* AW Book Club: what we've read
By Gertie · 16 posts · 1825 views

last updated Dec 10, 2019 09:01AM

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What Members Thought

Jun 13, 2016 Annet rated it it was amazing

Shelves: apocalyptic, coming-of-age, dark, family-ties, have-to-read-again, literature-pure, very-british, favorites, wisdom-philosophical, hope

Truly one of the highlights of this year, this book....

Read a great review in the New York Times book review here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/boo...

“The Sunlight Pilgrims” is a stylistically quieter novel than Fagan’s bravura debut, “The Panopticon” — a fiery and voice-driven effort that landed her on Granta’s 2013 list of the best British novelists under 40 years old — but it is no less critical in its portrayal of marginalized people under the pressure of society’s norms....Fagan is a Truly one of the highlights of this year, this book....

Read a great review in the New York Times book review here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/17/boo...

“The Sunlight Pilgrims” is a stylistically quieter novel than Fagan’s bravura debut, “The Panopticon” — a fiery and voice-driven effort that landed her on Granta’s 2013 list of the best British novelists under 40 years old — but it is no less critical in its portrayal of marginalized people under the pressure of society’s norms....Fagan is a poet as well as a novelist, and many of her images of this unbidden winter are shot through with lyric beauty. Early on, we are told that in this worst of winters “icicles will grow to the size of narwhal tusks or the long bony finger of winter herself.” Later, when the threesome venture out of the caravan to witness an iceberg’s arrival, they observe “all those peaked figures of ice, like all of their ancestors have been caught by the elements on the long walk home, their souls captured by ice and snow, and below them the North Sea cracks and groans as ice floes creak and collide.”

The Sunlight Pilgrims is a humane, sad, funny, shimmeringly odd and beautiful novel.....it is a story about people in extreme circumstances finding one another, and finding themselves...

Snow falls steadily, a shiny white glitter against the dark outside.....

I already know this is going to be one of my reading highlights of 2016. What a magical book. What I call a rare gem.... Highly, highly recommended.
It fits into one of my favorite categories, apocalyptic, and yet, the story is much more about a small caravan community in Scotland, plummeting into a sort of 'ice age', an ultimate and grim winter wonderland. It's a loving story of a color ful set of people, Constance and her transgender, brave daughter Stella. About Dylan who comes out to live in the caravan park grieving for his mother Vivienne and gin-brewing gran Gunn who died shortly after each other... Meanwhile temperature drops to more than minus 50 C and a huge iceberg is approaching the Scottish coast...
Beautifully written, poetic and to the point at the same time, it's still, it's a story about loving bonds, it's a wonderful read.
A quirky quote: I offered your mother a glass of water once, she said she couldn't possibly drink the stuff; when I asked her why, she said 'Fish fuck in it, darling!'... ...more

130 likes · Like · see review

Jul 01, 2018 Gertie rated it really liked it

This is far more about a child trying to be comfortable in her own skin, and the relationships of a few people, than an impending apocalypse.

While I found the lack of survival drama and the non-ending a letdown, I appreciated aspects of this story. The heart of it is Stella and her quest to simply be herself in a world that only sometimes accepts her. It's successful in getting into the mind of a child's way of seeing the world, particularly a gender atypical one like Stella.

I call this one "li ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Sep 15, 2025 Susan rated it did not like it

Got to page 82 and that was a struggle...cannot bring myself to finish, there are better books waiting for me..

3 likes · Like · see review

Aug 14, 2018 Hectaizani rated it liked it

Shelves: z2018, fiction, fiction-sf-science-fiction, library-copy, fiction-sf-dystopia, group-apocalypse-whenever, magical-realism

I was very disappointed in the way this book ended. The writing was beautiful and evocative, the characters were flawed and very human, the setting was bleak and then ... (view spoiler) ...more

Like · see review