Publisher's Synopsis
Winner - 2018 President's Book Award by the Florida Authors and Publishers Association. Winner - 2019 Best First Book - International Latino Book Awards. SUN NIGHT follows the lives of two brothers growing up in Panama in 1976. Sebastian and Santiago live in a home with an alcoholic and philanderer father. Their mother, Michelle, an English teacher, takes on the role of both parents while trying to keep her marriage alive for her children's sake. The boys are very close and protective of each other. They keep strong through all the adversity of their lives by stories they tell each other when they go to sleep at night. One day, Sebastian creates a collage of the sun for a school project which prompts his brother to ask him, "Where does the sun go at night?" This is enough for Sebastian's imagination to take them as far away as possible from their reality. The tales are symbolic yet incredibly fantastical and visually imaginative. Sebastian utilizes the sun as the protagonist that connects the scenarios he describes to his brother every night. It takes them to far and unique locales in China, Spain, Italy, and islands of the Pacific. The sun character is powerful, it has the ability to push itself through from one side of the planet to the other and able to go through the mouth of a volcano to make the night a day again. The narratives are rich in wisdom and color, a contrast from their real life. The family is later exposed to a tragic incident that tests everyone's strengths. The book culminates with a reflection in the author's own words bringing closure to the challenges he was exposed to in his youth in addition to considering the meaning of all he learned from his brother.
