The Light of Day

by Trena Christie-Maceachern

"The phone call from Art was the cut; the ticket, the scab; and the train ride, the healing."




Maggie struggles to find herself, and her place in her family, in 1950s Cape Breton. She has to travel a long way--not just to Toronto and Boston, but within herself--to come to an understanding of her life, her father, and her hopes.

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 31, 2023

Reviews

[Jim Fisher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars only. While this story had good bones, telling it in the first person didn't help. Maggie, while being likeable enough, is totally obtuse to what's happening around her in her family and the ending is just so.....bad.

[Mandy Lehti · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Light of Day by Trena Christie-Maceachern is a beautifully introspective story about growing up, breaking away, and finding your place in a world that keeps shifting under your feet. Set in 1950s Cape Breton, it captures the ache of longing, the pull of family, and the quiet courage it takes to step into your own light.

At its heart is Maggie a young woman trying to make sense of her family, her father, and herself in a time when women were expected to stay small. Her journey takes her from Cape Breton to Toronto and Boston, but the real distance she travels is within. Each step forward is both tender and transformative a meditation on grief, hope, and self-discovery.

Christie-Maceachern writes with poetic restraint and emotional precision, illuminating the beauty of ordinary moments a train ride, a phone call, a father’s silence until they shimmer with meaning. The story hums with nostalgia and quiet strength, evoking the rhythms of a bygone era while exploring timeless questions of love, identity, and freedom.

For readers who loved The Lost Garden by Helen Humphreys or Crow Lake by Mary Lawson, The Light of Day is an elegant, emotionally resonant novel about the journey toward wholeness and the courage it takes to forgive both where you came from and who you’ve been.

[D Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book as it told a story of Cape Breton of days gone by. It is a story of hardships, family and loss. It’s a story of how different members of the family deal with the losses in their lives. The story pulled me in and kept me there until the haunting ending.

[Harolyn Grant]

I enjoyed this book very much! Loved the in depth description of the characters. The ending was very thought provoking. Looking forward to the next book by this talented author!

[Bridget MacQuarrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book

[Mike Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though fudged a bit here and there, this is another read that is unabashedly Atlantic Canadian (which I approve of, by the way).

It's a wild and enjoyable ride that, in the end, turns the local lit trope on its ear (which I also approve of).

The twist at the climax is marvellously subtle, striking me only after I was there. I did not see it coming. I don't know if that fact tells a lot about me or the novel's structure and editing, but I recall no clues along the way that I could reflect on and say "oh yeah, right!" I didn't see it coming.

This is another nice twist (or disruption) to the Cape Breton trope, and it is refreshingly original.

[Anne Lévesque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, Camus said. In Christie-MacEachern's début novel even the lie is a lie. But I won’t spoil it. As to the truth, it’s that life was a struggle for most rural Canadians, difficult if not brutal in the time before Medicare, unemployment insurance and old age pensions. And MacEachern, like another Cape Breton writer, Tessie Gillis, does not romanticize any of it.