The Light of Seven Days a novel

(Hardback)

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Living with her Babby after her parents' death, 10-year-old Dinah Ash is invited to train at Leningrad's legendary Vaganova Ballet School. In the world of elite dance, she works hard, falls in love, and weathers the Soviet Union's ubiquitous antisemitism, but despite an impressive talent, she quickly learns that dancers of her "profile" don't make prima ballerinas. Love of Leningrad, ballet, friends, family, and books sustain Dinah until history intervenes. The Soviet war in Afghanistan, the rise of perestroika, and a re-emergence of Nazism leave her vulnerable and exposed. Realizing escape is her only option, she applies for refugee status in America. Dinah's adjustment to life in the US is a test as much of her identity as of her perseverance. Is who she is something Dinah can forge on her own Or is identity imposed by upbringing, public opinion, and the myths of our cultures As Dinah struggles with the questions of religion, race, and worth, her choices and the people she encounters will determine whether the dream of a better life can survive the weight of the past.

Reviews

Adams lyrical prose paints a lush, vivid, and imagistic portrait of the world through Dinahs eyes. . . . A quiet, artfully rendered story of the beauty and difficulty of coming-of-age between cultures, in the shadow of history.
"Adamss affecting insight into their adopted home and the Russia they left is well worth the troika ride. . .[a] bracing debut."
"In River Adams bracing and lyrical debut, The Light of Seven Days, a ballerina from the Soviet Union escapes to Philadelphia, a land of McDonalds and RiteAids, and the questions she finds: What is it like to flee from radical extremism What does it mean to be white To be American To believe in God could not be larger or more relevant. Adams novel reminds us that the eyes of the immigrant and the artist alike can make the familiar seem strange and the strange familiar."

Author Bio

After growing up a concert pianist in late Soviet Russia,River Adams(they/them) came to America as a Jewish refugee. They graduated from Rosemont College and Harvard Divinity School, then returned to Philadelphia to teach religious studies and work as a medical interpreter for Russian-speaking patients. Today, having earned an MFA from Emerson College, they live in Massachusetts. They are the author of many published short stories and essays and a biography of Leonard Swidler,There Must Be YOU(2014).The Light of Seven Daysis their debut novel.