I found this a slow, gentle and beguiling read, although perhaps not one of any great consequence. It’s the story of a young girl who travels to the US leaving behind her much loved mother in her native Brazil. Nothing much happens. There’s no great drama. She settles in, makes friends, her studies go well. She misses her mother but has long conversations with her on Skype and remains close to her. Although the mother/daughter relationship is at the heart of the novel, there are no new insights or revelations, and the pared down prose leads to a pared down narrative that remains curiously unemotional in spite of emotion being at the heart of the book. Enjoyable to read, poignant at times, but I felt at a distance throughout and didn’t become truly invested in the two main characters.

Thanks to the Author, Net Galley & the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for a fair & honest review. This book really speaks to the contradictions of survival in the 21st century. How we are so connected & yet siloed in the loneliness of our individual experiences.

The story follows a young Brazilian woman going to school in America. While her mother stays behind in Brazil & is left facing poor physical & mental health in wake of her daughter’s absence. Mother & daughter stay connected using technology but this novel will have you asking what does “connected” even mean. The writing is lyrical and beautifully crafted.


Ideal Reader:
Readers who like reflective stories about mothers & daughters. Readers who enjoyed Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. Readers who want to ugly cry.

Keywords: Literary, Mothers & Daughters, Brazilian Fiction, Slice-of-life,
International Students in America

I did not finish this book as it was not something I wanted to finish, primarily due to its robotic dejected nature, and the lackluster content.

This was lovely. A slow, tender, heartfelt story about a mother and daughter relationship after the daughter moves to the US to study. I took my time with this one, but always looked forward to reading it. Highly recommend. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

A story about a daughter and a mother trying to navigate loneliness after the daughters moving abroad. The author presented such a vivid and close picture of all the feelings and mishaps that arise with starting out at life as a newly independent and adult person, free from your family and alone in the world.

An Indie Next Pick for November, this novel focuses on the video conversations between a mother living in Brazil and her college-aged daughter living in Vermont. Each page is filled with quiet, tender, and aching moments.

I enjoyed this book but didn’t love it. It reminded me of moving away to uni and video calling my mum everyday whilst feeling more and more detached from her world.

I struggled with the characters being referred to as “the mother” and “the daughter”. It made the story feel stale.

A tight, compact barely-more-than-novella based on the author's fiction debut story. She's translated work from Brazilian that I've loved (<i>The Words That Remain</i>) and liked a lot (<i>Moldy Strawberries</i>), so I was primed for a good experience. I got that indeed.

Loneliness and that indescribable parent-feeling compounded of intense longing for the child you've had every day of their life as your primary focus mixed with huge dollops of pride in their accomplishment that's led them away from you, and the freezing fear of what you know can and will happen to hurt them where you just can't be. And, of course, resentment that this stellar being needs to be so far away to feel grown up. I was pleased that the author's stand-in was so dutiful and so genuinely, if sometimes impatiently, loving toward her mother in their long-distance relationship.

If you have, or were, a child, it's going to speak to you. It's told mostly from the author-placeholder's PoV, but we do hear directly from her mother at the end. It will sound, and feel, familiar to older folks. It will offer some insights to younger ones. It will do all this without leaving you feeling Taught. I am morally certain Author Lobato has been in this exact skin, it fits the reader so well.

Why I recommend it to you now is the fall has fallen, there's chill in our Northern Hemisphere air, trees are coloring up, and that's the time for a hot steaming mug for sipping and a long sleeve for sniffling into. You'll do a lot of both of 'em.

I'd offer a fifth star had the ending not felt like it was given a mildly short shrift. It's not bad, it's organic to the story, it's just not quite enough for a full, complete experience of her mother's part of their life.

A first novel made from Life, and grown from a short story could not hope for a better apotheosis. This will not, I hope, be the last work of her own long fiction Author Lobato publishes. Those will feel even more accomplished.

A daughter and a mother use their frequent live chats on Skype to maintain their relationship and to navigate the lonely waters they both find themselves in after the daughter leaves home (Brazil) to go and study in the US (Vermont).

Although the daughter is lonely and has to find her feet in this new world we see no sign of her going back home, not even for a visit. Money is a problem yes but I felt that there was more underneath, it felt like she did not want to go back, why? Pity it wasn't examined, I would have liked that.

An ARC gently provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.

This novel! This novel got me right in the feels. I have such a vivid, visceral memory of my first semester of college, living away from home for the first time, and the surprising need to connect with those back home. The narrator of this little gem is a young woman from Brazil who has journeyed to Vermont to attend university. Nearly every night, she speaks to her beloved mother via Skype. It's so endearing, so beautiful. They talk about ordinary, quotidian events, yet it's the most realistic dialogue I've read in ages. I loved this story. It made me miss my mom, Everyone, call your mom while you still can.

This beautifully-written novel by Bruna Dantas Lobato is an innovative tale about a family's love and longing revealed during lengthy exchanges back and forth on it's computers. A mother and daughter seek connection through Skype. Attending a liberal arts college in Vermont, fashioned after Bennington, the daughter is 4,000 miles away from her Brazilian mother.

They talk on Skype with the blue light glowing from their computers, trying to keep their relationship current and upbeat. The mother talks about her television soap operas, the daughter talks about the weather (it often snows in the winter in Vermont) and about her friends.

My favorite part of this book was the mother going out on a date with a co-worker who asked her if she wouldn’t prefer a daughter who was “a little stupid” that kept house.

Her date’s questions act as a catalyst spurring the mother to action, leading to a satisfying ending and one of hope.

Blue Light Hours by Bruna Dantas Lobato is a quiet, meditative piece of fiction of the slice-of-life variety. There isn't much plot to talk of - it's basically a chronicle of the protagonist moving to Vermont from Brazil to attend college there and thus leaving her mom behind. The book has a lot of tender scenes of them making an effort to stay in touch and growing in different directions.

I related to how central her mom was to the mc's life and how her life seemed to revolve around her. And the pain of being far that the author described was all too familiar. There were also these small, intimate ways in which we connect to someone who's far from us that she described so beautifully. Like touching someone's handwriting on a package you receive to feel closer is something I've personally done.

I feel like the thought at the heart of the book is being torn in two between building your own life and chasing your own desires or happily serving your loved ones and make sacrifices for them that feel equally easy and difficult.

I liked the first part with the focus on the daughter but didn't enjoy the part with the mother as much. Especially the scenes about her adopting a dog made me livid and it was hard to read. It's a small detail in the whole of the narrative and it didn't make me dislike the book but that negative feeling was unfortunately memorable for me.

I thought it was masterfully conveyed that children who perform social mobility, move to more affluent countries, and obtain higher levels of education than their parents often feel like they end up becoming the parents in the relationship with their own parents. This was reflected in how the mother was depicted as quite childish and a lot less independent than the daughter. As the first person in my family to get a college degree and to travel to different countries around the world, I've felt something similar about many of my family members so this hit me right in the emotions.

It's also an insightful look into the immigrant experience at a US college.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion, it was a lovely read 💜

This is the tender account of the relationship between a mother and a daughter when the daughter goes off to college in the US, how it evolves with the distance and changing rhythms of their lives. It’s a story about separation: leaving home and the culture you know to become an international student, speaking and thinking in a new language which starts to put up a barrier between you and home. It’s about all the meanings of home, and how we all, at some point, learn to leave so as to grow into ourselves. But the young woman in the story also has to learn new ways to maintain those ties to home, because her mom is sick, and alone—and knowing the anxiety of being the daughter of a single mom, and being far away; every word rings true to me. For me, modern technology made the distance seem shorter, as it does for the young woman of the story: she and her mom maintain contact through regular Skype calls—the blue light of the title.

It’s beautiful the way Bruna Dantas Lobato makes the rhythm of the changing seasons the rhythm of the changes in the relationship between the two women; that’s in fact the crux of the story. I waited anxiously for something to happen to the mom—my own anxiety, when I was away from mine—but that’s not this story. The mom, too, is learning here to let go of her child, and finding new ways of relating to her. After many years of giving herself to caring for her daughter—being the sole caregiver—the shape of her life must change, and she, too, is discovering who she is now.

Thanks to Grove Press and to NetGalley for early access to a DRC.

Thank you Grove Atlantic and Net Galley for the ARC.

This book is quite a heartwarming and simple story of a mother and daughter who is overseas. While reading this book, the way it was narrated was just like watching a vlog. It felt too personal. I think this was my first time reading a book that tackles a story like this. However, nothing much really quite happened in this book.

It really felt like you were following the MC in her journey to college and seeing her relationship with her mother.

This highly reminds me of the time when I was away for almost a year from my home to jump-start my career.

Brilliant! A soft, slow, and beautiful exploration of the mother-daughter dynamic, the alienation born from migration, and what it emotionally means to leave everything behind.

'I felt like a child again, always carrying the feeling that everyone else knew something I didn't. I felt like I would never stop anticipating my own arrival, waiting for the moment when I'd finally feel at home, no questions asked. And then when it finally happened, who would I be then?'

Separated into two parts, one from the daughter's perspective and one from the mother's, we follow their everyday lives after the daughter leaves Brazil to go study in America. The yearning between them was palpable, the author punching my heart and soothing it at the same time. The two of them learn how to live alone, the mother not entirely understanding what her daughter's life looks like and who she has become in the physical absence of her mother. The book is very simple, focusing on their relationship and the growth of it, but also the growth of them separately. There's so much beauty in its simplicity, so much warmth and love. I loved the writing style, and the author's choice not to use quotation marks – it adds more meaning to the rift growing between the characters, and how some things get lost in translation. This book is a great example of how life can be brutal, exciting, filled with anguish and beauty at the same time!

I would highly recommend this to everyone! It is such a beautiful, nostalgic book, ideal for cold rainy days! I believe anyone who has experienced the abrupt change in leaving their old life would appreciate the softness of this book, the beauty of the sadness in it. This is a debut book, and I hope with my whole heart that the author will write something more as soon as possible because I loved this one immensely!

'But everything else is the same. Life's still hard. I'm still me. But everything else is not the same, she said, frowning. Not even us.'

This novel follows a Brazilian woman who moved to the US to study and her Skype calls with her mother. Drawn to the mother-daughter dynamic, I hoped for deeper emotional resonance but found the characters lacking the impact i sought. While it didn’t deliver the attachment i craved, the author’s writing style beautifully captures the ache of loneliness, the pangs of longing, and the nuanced challenges of the immigrant experience. It’s a tender read, though it left me wanting more.

PS. i’ve seen reviews that this book is for readers who love Sally Rooney, but I haven’t read her works yet 🥲, so I can’t say for sure.

Blue Light Hours is such a delightful and cozy read. I adore the formatting (i.e., no quotation marks—which only works in novella length pieces) and the way that everyone but the mother and daughter have been given names, and so we only think of them in their relation to the other. I think this is a beautiful and tender exploration of intimacy and distance and how the two may sometimes be inversely related, as odd as that may sound. There's something about these new rituals that they come up with and the way that the daughter thinks of her laptop—something that should be central to her as a student—as the fishtank for her mother, framing this piece of technology in its relation to her mother. It's such a lovely read that I can easily recommend, especially in this autumn weather.

This was a gem. Valuable perspective on the world, on long-distance relationships, on life ever-changing. I felt calm/peaceful throughout, in the best kind of way, I think as a result of the way the author wrote this. But it still invoked feelings of home, comfort, discomfort, nostalgia, longing, change, and growth. The length and pace were nice. Truly a beautiful read that I recommend everyone embrace!

"Blue Light Hours" by Bruna Dantas Lobato is a beautifully written poignant coming of age story about a young woman leaving home in Brazil to go to a liberal arts college in Vermont. The author's lyrical prose paints a touching portrait of the main character's relationship with her mother as they struggle with longing from being apart and trying to connect over a computer screen. Bruna Dantas Lobato paints a moving description of the pain of leaving home to create a new life, especially for a young woman without resources to travel back and forth. This book will stay with me, especially some of the physical descriptions of winter in Vermont and the blue light. Recommended. Thanks to Grove Atlantic and NetGalley for the eARC.

3.5 Stars

This is a quiet novel about the bond between mother and daughter.

An unnamed young woman is attending a liberal arts college in Vermont as an international student. Her mother remains in northeastern Brazil. In the blue light of their computers, the two communicate, and as absence disrupts their usual routines, they develop new rituals to maintain their bond.

The book examines the immigrant experience. The young woman has to adjust to a new country with a different climate, culture and language. As one would expect, she makes friends mostly with other international students who can understand her feelings of not fitting in and her homesickness and loneliness. Because she is a scholarship student, she doesn’t have the money other students have to return home for periodic visits.

But the book’s focus is on the complexities of the mother-daughter relationship as it inevitably changes because of the distance that separates them and because the daughter’s experiences are so alien to the mother. The daughter, though she often feels isolated and adrift, is grateful for the opportunities she has and wants independence, but at the same time as she enjoys her life, she loves her mother and feels guilty about leaving her alone. The mother’s health issues add to the daughter’s concerns. The mother realizes she has more freedom and fewer responsibilities but loves and misses her daughter very much. She wants her daughter to have opportunities, “to have the ocean,” but has to come to terms with changes in her daughter, including hearing her speak a language she herself doesn’t understand. Both want to maintain a connection while having to find new identities and purposes and learn “how to live alone, and to keep going.”

Three-quarters of the book is from the daughter’s perspective in first person. This section covers her first year in the U.S. Then there’s a shift to the mother’s perspective but her section is in the third person. Though very short, the mother’s chapter covers years. The final chapter entitled “Reunion” takes place five years after the daughter’s leaving for her education. I found the large time jumps to be awkward, and the switch to third person has a distancing effect.

Actually, there’s a feeling of detachment throughout. The style contributes to this because it feels detached and emotionless. There were many times when I wanted more feeling. The plot is also minimalist so parts felt incomplete; not much happens. For instance, the daughter’s life is described vaguely; it’s an impressionistic approach. I understand that the author wanted to focus on theme, but I would have appreciated more depth.

This is not a book for readers wanting lots of action since it describes only the mundane daily activities of the young woman and her mother. I sometimes found the book repetitive and its slow pace frustrating. However, it will appeal to readers interested in a realistic portrayal of a mother and daughter relationship as the two learn to let go and move forward while still maintaining a close bond.