When the Lights Go Out

When the Lights Go Out is absolutely superb. So timely, and so deeply human, a novel which takes us right into the heart of a marriage and at the same time grapples with the most crucial issue of our age. It's bursting with compassion and wisdom - I felt for these characters every step of the way.

Shelley Harris, author of JUBILEE

Carys Bray is extraordinarily skilled at creating characters who feel like they might live down the road from you. Through exquisite use of language and observation, she examines the intricacies of family life in ways which have you laughing one moment and biting your nails with worry the next.

Sarah Franklin, author of SHELTER

A sharply observed, deftly told tale of rupture and repair. In it, with characteristic wit and humanity, Bray shows us the necessity and the impossibility of preparing for disaster, and reminds us of both the fragility and capacity of love.

Jenn Ashworth, author of A KIND OF INTIMACY and FELL

A beautifully realised story of a family falling apart under the pressures of our age.

i paper

One of the best things you'll read: warm, witty and wise.

ipaper

Bray's third novel is the finely drawn story of a marriage on the skids and a nuanced appraisal of the variegated impacts of climate change.

Best autumn books, Irish Times

Warm, witty and well worth your time.

Autumn books round-up, Herald

[A] timely and ruminative novel.

Observer

A joy to read [...] her writing is really smart. The family's interactions are so well observed.

Natalie Jamieson, Times Radio

Beautifully-written ... superb on family dynamics.

Daily Mail

Testing Christian ethics against post-religious eco-panic in a picturesque English novel makes this an unusual and fascinating read. At first it seems like a simple domestic dramedy about a grumpy husband and his eye-rolling wife. But Bray is on a real philosophical quest here and, in common with all great writers, isn't afraid to have her characters say clever things and get into unusual situations. There is no whimsy here. No cheap, easy imagery (crows, I'm talking about you). This is a powerful and truthful story about hope and how to find it. Eschatology with rabbits and needlecraft. It's intelligent, truly timely and subtly reassuring.

Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

Carys Bray writes with a quiet formidable brilliance. Her observations on relationships are acute, painful and extremely funny. This is a gem of a book.

Emily Maitlis

It's a fresh, topical perspective, told expertly by Bray ... When the Lights Go Out ultimately asks a pertinent question: what does it mean to be good, or happy, or prepared, and which of these is most important? In the end, Bray's characters are forced to accept that they don't know - which, in this age of social media-heightened political division that seems to encourage dogmatism, is a welcome tonic.

Sunday Times

Bray has a knack of dealing with weighty themes with the lightest of touches.

Best New Fiction, Mail on Sunday

Bray's satire shines with observation and subtlety . . . With sharp wit, Bray teases out the tiny domestic dramas, identifying the pinch points that can make the most solid relationships briefly or permanently unendurable. Bray shows how the most well-regulated household can still tremble on the brink of collapse. What message could be more timely than that?

Guardian

In a literary landscape in which cultural and political "timeliness" too often trumps artistry, it is a relief to discover there are still novels being written that confront the great questions of the day with nuance, skill and artistry.

Irish Times

When the Lights Go Out is a triumph. Richly metaphorical, impeccably dramatised, beautifully plotted, and so lifelike it seems to lift off the page . . . It has voices: Milton, Shakespeare, Keats, Edgar Alan Poe, Dylan Thomas and the Bible. It has ghosts: of Eden, Job, the Flood and Judgement Day. It has Christmas carols, closing down notices, protest slogans and commandments written in stone. It takes place at a tangent to the world we currently inhabit and we wake from reading it as if from a dream. The dream is that the world is ending and we are in need of a miracle. The book is a small miracle itself. Carys Bray has given us a perfect example of how to write a novel.

Grace McCleen

Bray is brilliant in her explorations of the delicate ecosystem of a long marriage.

Financial Times

A very funny book . . . prescient and poignant . . . [with] a believable and moving climax to a novel that captures the paranoia of our times.

i paper

Propulsive, penetrating new novel about race, class, and climate change.

BBC Culture

A very funny book.

i News

It's bleak and it's laugh-out-loud funny, and just how Bray balances a book along that fine line is a wonderful skill.

Claire Fuller

A tremendously witty and enjoyable read

New Books Magazine