Light in August

Light in August, published in 1932 by William Faulkner, is a Southern Gothic novel set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, during the early 1930s amid Prohibition and Jim Crow-era racial tensions. The story intertwines the lives of key characters like Lena Grove, a serene pregnant woman searching for the father of her child, and Joe Christmas, a troubled orphan of ambiguous racial heritage who grapples with identity, alienation, and violence after a fraught relationship with Joanna Burden ends in murder. Through non-linear flashbacks and rich psychological depth, Faulkner explores profound themes of race, religion, fate, and Southern society’s burdens, contrasting Lena’s life-affirming resilience with Joe’s tragic self-destruction.