The Radiant Dark by Oliva, Alexandra
The Radiant Dark by Oliva, Alexandra

The Radiant Dark

Arrival meets Wild Dark Shore in this captivating novel that follows a family over fifty years--a bold...
$34.74 USD
$34.74 USD
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Author: Alexandra Oliva
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Subtotal: $34.74
The Radiant Dark by Oliva, Alexandra

The Radiant Dark

$34.74
The Radiant Dark by Oliva, Alexandra

The Radiant Dark

$34.74
Author: Alexandra Oliva
Format: Hardcover
Language: English
Description
Arrival meets Wild Dark Shore in this captivating novel that follows a family over fifty years--a bold and compassionate exploration of the universe around us and what it truly means to be human.

"The Radiant Dark is incandescent." --Sarah Jessica Parker

It's March 1980, and Carol Girard and her husband are living an ordinary life in a small town in the Adirondacks. They have just had their first child, and though Carol is struggling with the challenges of new motherhood, her future seems clear. Until something extraordinary happens: an inexplicable flickering of light in the sky, which is ultimately determined to be communication from intelligent life on another planet. But these beings are eleven light-years away, and nothing is known about them other than the fact that they seem to know we exist too. And so begins a decades-long exchange of messages with this mysterious, faraway civilization.

As humanity reels from a shifting understanding of its place in the universe, we follow the stories of the Girard family: Carol, whose fascination with this other life sparks a desperate search for spiritual meaning; Michael, her loyal son, who finds solace not in the stars above his head but in the ground beneath his feet; and Ro, Carol's bright and ambitious daughter, whose childhood goal to work in interstellar communication will evolve into something far grander.

Tracing five decades of love, loss, ambition, and self-discovery, The Radiant Dark is a stunning examination of a family navigating their lives with the knowledge that we are not alone.

Author: Alexandra Oliva
Publisher: Sjp Lit
Published: 04/28/2026
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.35lbs
Size: 9.14h x 6.07w x 1.43d
ISBN: 9781638932529


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/09/2026
Foreword 02/27/2026
Booklist 03/01/2026
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2026
Shelf Awareness 01/01/0001

About the Author
Alexandra Oliva is the author of The Last One, her debut which was selected as a Best Book of 2016 by The Seattle Times and was translated into twenty-five languages; and Forget Me Not. She grew up in a tiny town in New York's Adirondack Mountains and received her BA from Yale University and her MFA from The New School. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with her family.
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