Spent Light

In this startling hybrid book—fiction, memoir, history, essay—Lara Pawson makes us see the world with fresh eyes—and not look away.

An unnamed woman contemplates the toaster she’s inherited from a neighbour. A homely object, hardly worthy of a sonnet or still-life. And yet, thinking of where its parts originated, who assembled it, and how it arrived at her door, could it not be considered as a source of awe?

There is nothing else in contemporary writing quite like this quest to think through the common objects that make up a comfortable life. Pawson makes us see in them all the parameters of history, slavery, genocide, as well as the joy of work, care, physical pleasure—until we realise that this extraordinary book is also a love story.

Our female narrator’s unrelenting focus on the details of domestic living spirals into moments of dark humour. Staring at the words REHEAT DEFROST CANCEL on the toaster, she sees ‘a synopsis of the anthropocene’. Pawson’s courageous thought associations allow us to apprehend the darkness and light in our shared humanity.

This brilliant and savage book should become cult reading. Spent Light is a masterly anatomy of our moment in time.

‘Intense, with incredible writing, but it is only 144 pages long. It’s like walking through a furnace for ten minutes. It’s great.’ Daily Mail
‘Pawson’s writing is brilliant, unnerving and shockingly alive.’ Times Literary Supplement

‘Lara Pawson’s merciless and exquisite prose adorns everyday objects with the violence of history – the savage comedy by which living creatures have become broken, petrified things.’ Merve Emre