Praise for We Are Light

"It is fascinating story of a commune in which the members cease to eat and live of air and light. One member dies of starvation. What happened? You read the account by witnessing it by means of bystanders but also by means of other characters, such as the night, a cigarette or even the story itself! Each chapters is told by another character. Bizarre: the story is based on true accounts." ―Dublin Literary Award Judges Citation 

"A riveting experimental novel about a commune where the members’ belief that they can live on light and love alone proves fatal for one of them." ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

In Gerda Blees’s novel We Are Light, a woman’s quiet, bizarre death exposes the tragic gap between ethics and legality. The leader of the Sound & Love Commune, Melodie manipulates loyalty and obedience from her small group of followers. When she tells them they can survive on light rather than food, they listen, even as Melodie’s sister Elisabeth starves to death before their eyes. We Are Light is a haunting novel in which obsession, mental illness, and deferred dreams lead to complex, compounding tragedies." ―Foreword Reviews, starred review

"The ramifications of today’s collective isolation form the crux of the contemporary crises scrutinized in Gerda Blees’s incisive debut novel We Are Light, now available from World Editions in Michele Hutchison’s translation. Originally published in Blees’s native Netherlands in 2020, during the initial pandemic lockdown, the novel won the European Union Prize for Literature the following year. We Are Light evaluates the culpability and interdependence of cohabitating commune members after one of them dies from severe malnutrition." ―LA Review of Books    

“An ingenious and highly original composition. What emerges is a beautiful, soulful, rich, and relevant portrait of what people are looking for when they reject science, of what people can do to themselves, just to stay together, to be part of a herd, a group, a ‘we.’” ―Jury, Libris Literature Prize
“This novel has a good chance of becoming the most remarkable and formally innovative debut novel of the spring. It’s a remarkable novel, and, despite its oppressive subject, a true pleasure to read.” ―Der Standard

“Convincingly, Gerda Blees finds her meticulously narrated way through the mine field of fashionable trends.” ―Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“A penetrating psychological text that plumbs the depths of human deception of ourselves and others.” ―Die Presse

“An excellent novel. The stunning final chapter will leave readers gasping for air.” ―VPRO Gids

“The changing perspective allows Blees to zoom in, zoom out, conceal, and reveal. It’s a game loaded with unexpected tension. You’re taken by surprise time and again.” ―NRC Handelsblad

“It’s nice when a writer has the guts to do something different, but it’s priceless when this unconventionality has added value and leads to a unique novel.” ―De Volkskrant

“It’s brilliant how Blees manages to turn the ‘we are …’ every chapter starts with into the book’s main theme. You feel that you’re holding something remarkable in your hands.” ―Trouw

“She sets the tone with ever-changing perspectives, sometimes drily comical, often also touching and very human; she colors the story of the people who want to live on light and air in an entirely novel way.” ―Het Parool

“Blees masters the art of taking the reader by the hand and leading them past successive stages of concern, outrage, and resignation. She subtly calls into question the judgments we pass on idealistic people such as the novel’s protagonists, and she allows us to empathize with people we initially thought we’d never be able to relate to.” ―Tzum

“The stream of consciousness that runs through Elisabeth’s demented mother’s head is brilliant.” ―Knack

“It sounds crazy but the talented Blees pulls it off: her story alternates between the perspectives of, for instance, a slow juicer, a cello, a demented mother, or the crime scene. An unconventional reading experience.” ―De Morgen

“A dramatic but humorous story about how people can lose themselves in an ideal.” ―HP/De Tijd

“A pageturner that isn’t just suspenseful, but also very relevant and exquisitely narrated.” ―FM4 (Austria)

“Original and astonishing!” ―MDR Kultur