Book summary

Personal and literary explorations of the less visible half of life by a gifted critic and acutely intuitive memoirist.

Media reviews

"Because it bedevils our perceptions, the night world both tantalizes and spooks us....Exploring the conquest and colonization of the night, [Alvarez] traces the history of fire keeping and lamp making, from Indians in Vancouver, who kindled oily candlefish stuck into cleft sticks, all the way to the builders of Las Vegas, whose sizzling sandstorms of light illuminate the desert.."