Lights All Night Long, Fitzpatrick, Lydia

Lights All Night Long is utterly brilliant and completely captivating. . . . One of the most propulsive, un-put-downable literary novels Ive read in ages.--Anthony Marra, author of A Constellation of Vital Phenomena

Fifteen-year-old Ilya arrives in Louisiana from his native Russia for what should be the adventure of his life: a year in America as an exchange student. The abundance of his new world--the Super Walmarts and heated pools and enormous televisions--is as hard to fathom as the relentless cheerfulness of his host parents. And Sadie, their beautiful and enigmatic daughter, has miraculously taken an interest in him.

But all is not right in Ilyas world: hes consumed by the fate of his older brother Vladimir, the magnetic rebel to Ilyas dutiful wunderkind, back in their tiny Russian hometown. The two have always been close, spending their days dreaming of escaping to America. But when Ilya was tapped for the exchange, Vladimir disappeared into their towns seedy, drug-plagued underworld. Just before Ilya left, the murders of three young women rocked the towns usual calm, and Vladimir found himself in prison.

With the help of Sadie, who has secrets of her own, Ilya embarks on a mission to prove Vladimirs innocence. Piecing together the timeline of the murders and Vladimirs descent into addiction, Ilya discovers the radical lengths to which Vladimir has gone to protect him--a truth he could only have learned by leaving him behind.