Susan C., Jamie O., Nikole C., and Claudia B., for the extraordinary kindness, the laughter, the relief, and the expertise.
You all were God’s answer to my most fervent prayers.
Those who empowered:
I wouldn’t be writing these thank yous were it not for Becky Monds, my editor. You understand my heart and breathe life into my novels. Thank you for walking alongside me for the third time with your trademark enthusiasm, calm, and incomparable mastery.
Chip MacGregor, my agent. Your expertise is well established in the publishing world, but it’s your kindness and dedication I’ve come to appreciate most. Thank you for finding this novel a home.
Thomas Nelson, my attentive, highly-respected, and standard-setting publisher. I am flabbergasted, blessed, and grateful to work with you.
About the Author
Author photo by Carrie From Photography
Born in France to a Canadian father and an American mother, Michèle Phoenix is a consultant, writer, and speaker with a heart for Third Culture Kids. She taught for twenty years at Black Forest Academy (Germany) before launching her own advocacy venture under Global Outreach Mission. Michèle travels globally to consult and teach on topics related to this unique people group. She loves good conversations, mischievous students, Marvel movies, and paths to healing.
Learn more at michelephoenix.com
Instagram: shellphoenix
Twitter: @frenchphoenix
Facebook: AuthorMichelePhoenix
Advance Praise for Fragments of Light
“Michèle Phoenix skillfully explores the strength and resiliency of the human spirit but also its heartbreaking limits. Brimming with expertly researched wartime details, Fragments of Light abounds with poignancy and insight.”
—Susan Meissner, bestselling author of The Last Year of the War
“Michele Phoenix’s Fragments of Light is a luminous portrait of men and women grappling with the past in a brave attempt to forge a different kind of future. From page one, I was all in. Ceelie’s anguish and hope, Darlene’s spunk and pain, and Cal’s courage and conviction—all of it combines to create a story as beautiful as it is heartbreaking. In short, I loved this book!”
—Lauren Denton, USA TODAY bestselling author of The Hideaway and The Summer House
“Michèle Phoenix is a novelist who has chased the truth about World War II and D-Day, and she has made it come to life. As much as a novel will permit, Michèle has made sure that this novel is historically accurate. She was right with the jumpers on D-Day. Her literary ability brings out the emotions of the reader. As a D-Day Airborne participant, I recommend this novel with enthusiasm. Everyone should read it.”
—Staff Sergeant Thomas Rice, WWII Veteran, 101st Airborne
“Loving can be just as brutal as it is beautiful. Michele Phoenix weaves this truth through every strand of the stories in her novel Fragments of Light. As the title suggests, there are no easy illuminations on the path of healing. Cancer attacks more than the body. War destroys more than flesh and bone. Not all heroes welcome the attention, and not all husbands are up to the challenge. Women find the most unlikely sources of strength, and the best families defy definition.”
—Allison Pittman, bestselling author of The Seamstress
“A compelling story across time of love, loss, and what happens when tragedy strikes. In Fragments of Light, Ceelie and Darlene forge a beautiful friendship that brings healing, forgiveness, and a chance for new beginnings. Written with depth and understanding, this story offers readers a wonderful journey spanning from war-torn World War II France to a battle for love in our time.”
—Katherine Reay, bestselling author of Dear Mr. Knightley and The Printed Letter Bookshop
“An immersive and unforgettable treatise on the power of love in all of its manifestations. The past and present blur in this exceptionally researched portrait of humanity in the midst of turmoil and great divide. Deeply personal and beautifully humane, Phoenix once again asserts her power as one of the most moving and lyrical voices in inspirational fiction.”
—Rachel McMillan, author of The London Restoration
“It’s not often a story moves me as Fragments of Light has. With a rare and honest voice, Michèle Phoenix weaves a story of heroes from yesteryear and also those from your neighborhood—each with hearts of valor—as they endure the fight of their lives. Fragments of Light braids together the dark and light of history and the human soul, both through the lens of restoration and hope. Beautifully crafted with characters I will not soon forget—don’t forget to order this gem, it may be the best book you’ll read this year.”
—Elizabeth Byler Younts, Carol Award–winning author The Solace of Water
“In Christy Award–finalist Michèle Phoenix’s latest novel, Fragments of Light, the author deftly takes us on a journey from Illinois to an abandoned farmhouse in Missouri to Normandy, France, in this compelling narrative that alternates between past and present, asking the reader: What length would you go to defend freedom and repair the fragments of shattered lives broken by war and illness, by misunderstandings and assumptions? But with enough wry humor sprinkled throughout to keep the reader chuckling even in the midst of pain.”
—Kathleen M. Rodgers, 2019 MWSA Writer of the Year finalist and author of The Flying Cutterbucks
Also by Michèle Phoenix
The Space Between Words
Of Stillness and Storm
Copyright
Fragments of Light
© 2020 Michèle Phoenix
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.
The author is represented by MacGregor Literary, Inc.
Interior design by Phoebe Wetherbee
Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please email [email protected].
Scripture quotation is taken from the King James Version. Public domain.
Publisher’s Note: This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. All characters are fictional, and any similarity to people living or dead is purely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Phoenix, Michèle, author.
Title: Fragments of light / Michèle Phoenix.
Description: Nashville, Tennessee : Thomas Nelson, [2020] | Summary: "From D-Day to present-day, two lives are irrevocably changed by the decision to chase brave or to run away from it"-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020008274 (print) | LCCN 2020008275 (ebook) | ISBN 9780785232056 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9780785232063 (epub) | ISBN 9780785232070 (audio download)
Subjects: GSAFD: Christian fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3616.H65 F73 2020 (print) | LCC PS3616.H65 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008274
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020008275
Printed in the United States of America
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