Lightbreakers

by Aja Gabel

A luminous novel of love, loss, science, and art, that asks if the past can ever be truly revisited, and at what cost?

In the beginning, there was happiness. Maya, an artist obsessed with the nature of beauty, and Noah, a quantum physicist preoccupied by the mysteries of the universe, found in each other a shared curiosity about the world. But beneath the surface of their happy marriage is a third Serena, the lost child that Noah had with his ex-wife, Eileen.

One day Noah gets a call from an eccentric billionaire, asking him to participate in a clandestine project aiming to unravel the secrets of time and consciousness. The couple agrees to relocate to the Janus Lab, deep in the desert, where Noah finds himself drawn into a dangerous kind of time travel that could result in seeing Serena again.

As Noah delves into this groundbreaking, fringe work, his past begins to overtake him. And when his ex-wife, Eileen, joins the project, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past, one that takes her to Japan, to her family, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah, Maya, and Eileen grapple with the balance between holding on and letting go, new information emerges that the Janus Lab might not be exactly what it seems.  

A heart-achingly moving novel, Lightbreakers plumbs the mysteries of human connection, and explores how to love in a world where time is both a healer and a thief.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Time Travel

352 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication November 4, 2025

Reviews

[The Speculative Shelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emotionally resonant and deeply felt, Lightbreakers plumbs the complex depths of love, loss, and grief through the eyes of three individuals caught in a tide of mourning and the “indestructible fiber” that can bind a family even when one strand is severed.

When Noah, a grieving quantum physicist, is recruited by an eccentric billionaire (are they ever not eccentric?), he gains access to a time machine that allows him to travel back to visit his 3-year-old daughter, just prior to her death. Gabel wisely avoids alternative timelines and branching paths, keeping the story grounded in the present and in the deep wounds that Noah and those in his orbit are working through.

I enjoyed my time spent with Lightbreakers and found Gabel’s prose quite lovely. Though heavy at times, it is never overwrought nor exceedingly bleak. I’m ill-equipped to vet any of the physics or quantum mechanics at play, but Gabel succeeds in making the science of time travel feel semi-plausible and always in service of the emotional heart of the novel.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

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[Liz Hein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I gotta go stare at a wall and think about all of time being eternally present. I’ll write a full review when I come out of my black hole.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Aja Gabel's debut The Ensemble and was incredibly excited to see that she was coming out with Lightbreakers. What a beautiful, overwhelming, and deeply resonant book.

Content warning: Child loss

[Joe Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review taken from my bookstagram @chapters.and.catnaps:

If you could go back in time to see your dearly departed without fully understanding the consequences, would you? Lightbreakers follows a trio of main characters as they explore this question, and the impact on those around them.

☀️ What I loved:
- This book is emotional, tackling subjects of grieving a child and past love. The way the characters handle these problems feels real and appropriate to their personality. There's no obvious right or wrong, just complex characters handling difficult questions.
- The quality of Aja's writing is excellent. Her prose flows like a poem, and I can still see certain scenes vividly in my head. The book feels incredibly sensory at points too. You can really see, hear, and smell certain scenes.

🌧️ What I enjoyed less:
- My only slight negative I'd have (and it's not necessarily a negative - depends what you're after) is that the time travel elements aren't very well explained, and it isn't clear to me what (if any) impact the time travel has on the characters in the past. In the author's defence, it is kind of palmed off by one of the characters who says that it isn't their problem to worry about, but feels worth highlighting this for anyone looking for a hard time travel story.

Overall I really enjoyed this one. I love a book that has complex characters dealing with difficult questions, and this book does it brilliantly.

If you want a beautifully written, character driven drama with sci-fi elements, then this book is for you. If you're after a hard time travel sci-fi, then potentially not.

[Mindee Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is a complicated look at past love, current love and dreams of changing the past.

Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, are married but Noah is privately grieving the loss of his child from his previous marriage. When Noah gets a chance to take part in a scientific experiment traveling back in time, he decides to attempt to change the fate of his child. Through this experiment, his ex-wife, Eileen, becomes a part of his journey which draws the two close again. Maya, feeling rejected and confused, turns to her ex-lover, Ren, who is also an artist.

This novel was well written and each chapter focused on a different character and their perspective which made this an easy and enjoyable to read. The characters made bad decisions and were not flawless, but seeing their struggles brought to light why they were making such bad decisions.

Thank you NetGalley and Riverhead Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review. #NetGalley #Lightbreakers #Riverhead @Riverhead

[Becca Sloan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was always excited to pick this book up. It made me feel like I could make beautiful art. The thoughtful exploration of time and love and relationships was soothing and gently challenging. Really lovely.

Content warning: child death

Including this in my review in case I ever go to Japan and don’t have time to search this book for it: Shimokitazawa sounds like a great hang.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful, heartbreaking story. This reads as a literary novel but the story is rooted in science fiction. While there is an intense speculative vein to this story, it’s also a deep, compelling character study. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

I had such strong reactions to some of the choices characters were making. Grief is a huge motivator some of the characters. Their loss creating a lens that they can’t see beyond and their miring in the past, destroying their present. I couldn’t bear to watch the self destruction and callousness this created, and yet, I also couldn’t put this book down.

It is so beautifully written. A core theme in this book is art, and the way this is written, certainly pitches the book as a work of art. Imagery is crucial, primarily in the lens of our artist character who is heavily influenced by what’s she sees as she makes the move to Texas to support her husband’s new job.

This was such an intense, fascinating book. I did not expect to be as mesmerised as I was but the book was absolutely gripping. Highly recommend.

[Kanan Jain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aja Gabel's Lightbreakers is a moving novel that delves into the mysteries of human connection through the lens of time and consciousness. The story centers on married couple Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, whose lives are upended when Noah is invited to a clandestine desert lab. The project promises a dangerous form of time travel, and Noah hopes it can help him reconnect with Serena, the lost child he had with his ex-wife, Eileen.
As Noah experiments with time, his past begins to resurface, and when Eileen joins the lab, Maya embarks on her own journey into her past in Japan. The narrative gracefully plumbs the complex emotional histories of the characters, exploring themes of love, loss, and letting go. While the time travel aspect adds a fascinating layer, the core of the story lies in the characters' personal, emotional voyages, making it a compelling read about how we move forward in a world where time is both a healer and a thief.

[Cari · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

This book wrecked me emotionally, but it was so good that I had to keep reading. Noah is a physicist, Maya an artist, and they are married. Noah is still grieving from his previous marriage and the death of his three-year-old daughter from an unknown heart issue. They are deeply in love, but that changes when Noah is offered a job he can't refuse. An eccentric millionaire is working on the particulars of time travel, and he wants Noah to be the one who does the traveling. Noah's first response is hope that he might be able to go back and see his daughter again. Noah's work unravels the couple. They can never return to who they were before, but can they become something different? The gravity of Maya's art juxtaposed with the beauty of science, the descriptions and emotional heft, the layering of themes throughout--all of it is so gorgeous. I can't describe how much I loved it.

[Kate Vane · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I always said I wouldn't get into half stars because that way madness lies (I’ve seen some people grading books to two decimal places!) but I've been feeling 3.5 ish about a few books lately so here goes.

Lightbreakers is an interesting literary exploration of memory and grief. Having the two protagonists, Maya and Noah, as an artist and a scientist also allowed for some interesting reflections on how we attribute meaning to difficult concepts.

The science-fiction element of it was (too?) lightly drawn and there was some ambiguity in what was happening, highlighting the subjective nature of memory.

So there was much to like but I did feel the novel went on longer than needed, and that the resolution of the plot sidestepped some of the thematic issues.

I found myself comparing it to Jo Harkin’s Tell Me an Ending which I thought had both a more engaging thriller/dystopian plot and deeper insights into the themes of memory and identity.

So, 3.5. Feels about right.
*
Copy from NetGalley

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Riverhead for the Galley!

I’ve been a fan of Aja Gabel’s work since the Ensemble, and I was so excited to read The Lightbreakers! The Lightbreakers is one of those books where you can’t say much about the plot without spoiling it, but the plot is so richly layered that I could not put it down, and when I finished I wanted to go back and look for the easter eggs, the repeated imagery. The mysteries threaded through the book were captivating, and the character arcs at times devastating. There was also a tender hopefulness in this book that was such a beautiful contrast to the darker scifi themes. I love love loved this book!

[Kiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed Aja Gabel’s debut but was unprepared for how much this novel would move me. The intersecting stories of Maya, Noah, and Eileen (and Serena, in some ways) are so well done - I was equally compelled by each of them. There were some astonishingly well crafted lines I had to underline and copy down later, and the book is filled with these tight, pithy but not trite observations on marriage and relationships that I found very insightful. Some of the science at Janus Labs felt kind of hand-wavey and perhaps under-explained, but that would be my only quibble and it’s not really the point of the book. I really loved this one.

[Rose Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel explores divorce, loss, and redemption through the lens of memory, art, science and time travel. If this sounds like a lot, yes it is, but it is also a lovely story of marriage, the parent-child relationship, and the art world. I would say I enjoyed the first half more than the second half, as things got more complicated and opaque the further the story progressed, but I still flew through this novel. Each character was well drawn and clear, though sometimes the circumstances/stakes were murky, and I really enjoyed the ride nevertheless. Worth the read for sure.

[nigel (nicole) paczkowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never heard or read any of Gabel's work, but she's on my watchlist now. Really incredible work. Gabel has the most beautiful prose and very solid pacing + worldbuilding. Realistic character development. A hopeful take on grief. So far, the best book I've read this year. Highly recommend! Hugs, kisses, and eternal gratitude to Riverhead Books for the eARC :)

[Mary Ann Livingood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt like a black hole; it was all I could think about while reading it. I sucked in all my conceptions of past, present, future, love, loss, and grief and spit them out the other side with a better appreciation for change and all that comes with it.

[Viviana Freyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Riverhead for the galley but this was a disappointment. The concept is really promising but the pacing is all over the place and too much is revealed way too quickly. I don’t believe the characters’ relationships and there’s so much telling and not showing

[Tina Hites · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first, the book was boring, but as I kept reading, it got better until I couldn't wait to read it

[J R · Rating 5 out of 5]

awesome and well-done book with some very realistic and effective characters. 5 stars. tysm for the arc, would recommend.

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Riverhead for the ebook. Noah, a quantum physicist, finally feels that he’s come to a good place in his life with the help of Maya, his artist girlfriend. Then a billionaire recruits them to Marfa, Texas, where she can work on a new art project and Noah is seduced into joining an experimental project that has the possibility of traveling back in time. No matter how improbable and dangerous the project might seem to be, the mere chance of going back and trying to see, and maybe save, his daughter Serena, who passed away one night suddenly, years ago is worth everything to Noah. Great novel of obsession and head spinning scientific possibilities.