For Lily Piper, life on the prairie is spare and austere. Nothing in her world responds to her hunger for life. When puberty hits, an abrupt shift in fate sends Lily to England, a place she thinks she may have invented. There at last, she experiences life in all its ambiguity, until she is called home to face a future she thought she had escaped.

Reading by Lightning, Joan Thomas’s long-awaited first novel, took readers by storm. A year after its publication, it had won numerous awards, found a large readership, and been selected by popular vote for On the Same Page, Manitoba’s one book reading experience.

“Like the man in the whirlwind, the reader of this fine novel is snatched away, deposited in a different place — and profoundly changed by the experience.”
“We experience this writing with our noses and ears and eyes and fingertips.”
– Lisa Moore

“A compelling story burnished by spare and powerful writing. This is a fabulous novel, full of grace and delicious discovery, haunted by the flavour of memory and the prairies in World War II.”
“A stunning prairie novel… The dialogue between characters blends emotions and words in an alchemy of tension… If Joan Thomas is an unknown name to you, that’s about to change.”
“Thomas writes like an angel… Her prose is carefully considered, troubled, alert to the texture of experience… singular, thoughtful writing that makes the world seem strange.”
“Lily Piper’s search for home — a place where life can be at once familiar and momentous — is utterly absorbing, told with consummate grace.”
– Beth Powning

“Joan Thomas’s writing is so precise, so surprising, that on any given page you might stop, only to read the words again slowly.”
– Kristen Den Hartog

“Thomas’s novel is a beautifully described and carefully detailed intersection of competing landscapes. … Precise, complex, and elegant, Reading by Lightning flashes with wit and insight and illuminates our understanding of what it means to be a sojourner in all the familiar places.”
“The book is destined to be classic of Canadian Prairie Literature. With writing as fresh and as beautiful as a Prairie landscape, Joan Thomas weaves a tale of mythical proportions.”
“Breathtakingly good.”
– Nikki Gemmell

“Thomas’s finely nuanced sensibility variously evokes Austen, Alice Munro, and Richard B. Wright. Most first-time novelists strain for the gold ring; Joan Thomas grabs it effortlessly in this wonderful book.”
“In fresh, exhilarating, masterful prose, Joan Thomas’s novel explores the question of belonging. The wit, the wisdom and the quality and generosity of psychological insight make Reading by Lightning the unanimous selection of the judges.”