New novel ‘Sunlight Finds You’ explores how a first love can affect one’s entire life

LAWRENCE — For her sixth book, novelist Laura Moriarty wanted to scrutinize the major choices and key events that can shape a person, even when they don’t realize what might be happening.

“It’s not exactly a romance,” said Moriarty, a professor of English at the University of Kansas. “But it ended up being a story of how a deeply felt first love can alter the course of your life.”

Her new novel, “Sunlight Finds You,” offers a love story about extending forgiveness and refusing to settle for a life that is less than full. It is published by Riverhead Books (an imprint of Penguin Random House).

The story centers on teenage Nora, who moves from Rolla, Missouri, to St. Petersburg, Florida, with her family in 1949. On the first day of high school, she meets Leonard, who is a few years ahead of her.

“He’s from a wealthy family. They fall in love. They have this very strong connection,” Moriarty said. “Within a few years, they’re engaged, but everything changes when she finds herself not just alone and heartbroken, but pregnant. In this era, to be unmarried was isolating and humiliating. A surprising betrayal makes things even harder for Nora.”

The author said she wanted to place the story in a region removed from her typical Midwest setting. She chose St. Petersburg because of its rich history. 

“My mother grew up in Orlando around this era, and she spoke of old Florida with a lot of love and sort of wistfulness. It always had a place in my imagination,” said Moriarty, who was a social worker before pursuing writing.

But the novelist said she was cautious about not succumbing to the anachronistic traps that a lot of writers fall into when exploring bygone periods.

“I’ve never liked historical fiction where the protagonist is way ahead of their time. Like, ‘I’m a feminist in 1684 who knows racism is wrong,’” she said.

While Moriarty said she was primarily concerned with delivering an engaging story, she hoped to craft a protagonist who truly feels like a product of their time.

“Reading and writing historical fiction makes me think of my own time period and the values and expectations of it as arbitrary and ephemeral, and not necessarily true or good. What we consider true and good now might be completely different in 30 years … and will certainly be different in 100,” she said.

Among the most challenging aspects of writing this particular novel was that Moriarty originally presented it from multiple points of view.

She said, “There were so many labor-intensive drafts from the wrong point of view. But I think that ended up helping me in the long run because even though I eventually decided to just let Nora tell the story, I knew those other characters so well, and I knew how the story looked from their perspective.”

But by far the biggest challenge she faced was being diagnosed with oral cancer during the process.

“I had just applied for a teaching release. And instead I spent my teaching release getting radiation and surgery. The treatment later resulted in a broken jaw that, in the years to come, required several more surgeries,” the author said, noting she is “now feeling great.”

Moriarty has served 18 years as a professor at KU, with a research focus on creative writing. She said teaching at the academic level has helped hone her own creativity.

“I sometimes feel like I’ve gotten six MFAs because I’ve been teaching in the graduate program for so long. My students often have really interesting perspectives and ways of engaging with written work. They broaden my horizons. I’ve met people I never would have met otherwise,” she said.

Her 2003 debut novel “The Center of Everything” (Hyperion) was selected as the KU Common Book. Her previous work also includes “The Rest of Her Life” (Hyperion, 2007), “While I’m Falling” (Hyperion, 2009), “The Chaperone” (Penguin, 2012) and “American Heart” (HarperCollins, 2017). Filmmaker Julian Fellowes adapted “The Chaperone” into a 2018 feature film of the same name starring Haley Lu Richardson and Elizabeth McGovern.

This week, “Sunlight Finds You” was described by “The Today Show” co-host Jenna Bush Hager as “the perfect summer read” while announcing it as the “Read With Jenna” pick for August. Moriarty will appear on the show Aug. 18.

The author said she has a good idea what type of audience will be drawn to her new book.

“Realistically, it’s going to be women,” she said.

“I had an agent once just bluntly tell me that, for the most part, women will read fiction by men and women; and men, for the most part, will only read fiction by men. Those are the hard parameters. My readership in past novels tends to be adult women. But this one seems to reach younger readers as well, and I’m glad for that.”

Moriarty will appear at book signings on Aug. 11 at Unity Temple in Kansas City, Missouri; Aug. 12 at Grace Presbyterian in Wichita; Aug. 13 at Lawrence Public Library and Aug. 29 at Barnes and Noble in Topeka.