Lily Brooks-Dalton Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Lily Brooks-Dalton
Lily Brooks-Dalton was born and grew up in southern Vermont. She earned a BA at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MFA at Portland State University.

“Good Morning, Midnight” was the inspiration for the Netflix Original Film “The Midnight Sky”, which was directed by and starring George Clooney.

The novel was also named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Chicago Review of Books and Shelf Awareness. It’s been translated into a dozen languages. Her memoir “Motorcycles I’ve Loved” was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award.

Lily was in Key West when she first began ruminating on preparing for storms and wondering about whether or not there was a story that she wanted to tell wrapped up in that rhythm. She was doing a residency at The Studios of Key West and there was a hurricane coming which didn’t wind up hitting the Keys, yet there was this palpable tension in the air which she kept coming back to.

Then she began thinking about linemen, and all of this labor which goes into keeping the lights on, so probably the first concrete moment that she had was imagining this little girl tagging along on storm duty with her dad, and just waiting for him in the bucket truck as he worked on downed lines. This exact scene did not actually make it into the finished book, however that was where she started. And the story of “The Light Prairie” from there.

She grew up in Vermont, striking out on her own fairly young, and right around that time her parents decided to relocate. Florida has always been her home base as an adult, however she is not sure she gets to say she’s actually from there.

She began working on “The Light Prairie” about one year before she moved to California. At this point she was actually living out of her truck and traveling around, however she had just spent a large chunk of time in Florida and so the landscape was still incredibly fresh for her. She didn’t even consider setting it somewhere else, Florida was at the heart of the idea from the beginning.

Lily thinks of Wanda as her protagonist. The book starts the day before she is born and it spans her entire lifetime, so even though it also follows the people around her, Lily thinks of Wanda as the center.

Lily has always been interested in the dark. Figuratively and literally. In “Light Prairie” and “Midnight” the literal dark is a crucial part of the narrative. Both of these stories hinge on using darkness and nighttime to see light in a different way. And in a more figurative sense, she is drawn to looking directly at this powerful anxiety which flows through our society.

It is pretty impossible to ignore, and if you attribute it to the climate crisis or politics, maybe something else, it’s pervasive. In a culture which is hopelessly divided, it’s one thing we can all agree on. There’s something awful coming, is happening already. Fiction is something that is uniquely suited to exploring such a feeling of doom, without succumbing to it, hopefully.

“Good Morning, Midnight” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2016. Augustine (a brilliant and aging astronomer) is consumed by the stars. For years he’s been living in remote outposts, and studying the sky for evidence for how the universe started. At his most recent posting, in a research center in the Arctic, news about a catastrophic event arrives. The scientists are forced to evacuate, however Augustine stubbornly refuses to abandon any of his work. Shortly after all of the others have gone, Augustine discovers Iris (a mysterious child) and realizes that the airwaves have gone silent. So they are alone.

Simultaneously, Mission Specialist Sullivan is on board the Aether on its return flight from Jupiter. The astronauts are the very first humans to delve this deep into space, and Sully’s made peace with the sacrifices that are required of her: a marriage ended and a daughter left behind. So far the journey’s been a success. However once Mission Control falls inexplicably silent, Sully and her crewmates are forced to wonder if they’ll ever get home.

While Sully and Augustine both face quite the uncertain future against beautiful yet forbidding landscapes, their tales gradually intertwine in an unexpected and profound conclusion. With crystalline prose, “Good Morning Midnight” poses the most important of questions: What endures at the end of the world? How do we make sense of our lives? This captivating debut novel is a meditation on the power of love and the bravery of the human heart.

“The Light Pirate” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2022. Set in the near future, this hopeful tale about resilience and survival follows Wanda (who’s a luminous kid born out of a devastating hurricane) while she navigates this rapidly changing world.

Florida is slipping away. While devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak a gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches the tiny town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe (an electrical line worker), Frida (his pregnant wife), and Lucas and Flip (their two sons) prepare for the worst. The boys disappear right before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds to search for kids. Left all alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to Wanda (an unusual child), whom she names after this catastrophic storm which ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before.

While Florida keeps unraveling, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not just to the changing landscape, however also to the people that stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, she loses her family, but gains community, and ultimately seeks love, adventure, and purpose in a place that’s been remade by nature.

Told in four parts (power, water, light, and time) “The Light Pirate” mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes slow, sometimes quick dissolution of the world as we know it. It’s a meditation on the changes that we’d rather not see, the future we’d rather not greet, and a call back to the violence and beauty of an untameable wilderness.