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The Lightning Keeper
The Lightning Keeper
Dec 4, 2025 1:12 PM

Author:Starling Lawrence

The Lightning Keeper

The Lightning Keeper is a sweeping epic novel of ambition, love and enterprise in America. It is the story of an unlikely Romeo and Juliet romance at the dawn of the electric age, with the nation balancing on the brink of world war and a scientific revolution.

In 1914 Toma Pekocevic is a penniless immigrant in New York, recently escaped from the bloody politics of the Balkans that have claimed most of his family. Also a gifted inventor, he designs a revolutionary water turbine while working with Harriet Bigelow, scion of a proud Connecticut iron-making dynasty now fallen on hard times. Their attraction is immediate and overwhelming, but every circumstance is against them.

Toma is eventually drawn inside the industrial empire of General Electric, his machine an essential cog in its grand scheme to provide electricity to the entire country. After he loses Harriet to a wealthy politician, his invention is all he has - but Toma is determined to win her back. The stage is set for a confrontation that could change not only his life but the course of scientific progress.

Deeply evocative and utterly engrossing, The Lightning Keeper is a rich tapestry of technology, romance and war - an unforgettable and distinctly American saga that establishes Starling Lawrence as one of the most talented writers at work today.

Reviews

When The Lightning Keeper releases you from obsessively turning its pages, you'll know that you have read an unforgettable account of lives and experience unique to this country. This is a great novel.

—— Harper Lee author of , To Kill A Mockingbird

A subtle and moving novel, an old-fashioned narrative that addresses modern questions of ethnicity and belonging.

—— LA Times

Breathtaking ... His knowledge is woven seamlessly into his story ... An ambitious, wonderful book ... It draws us in and allows us to live briefly, magically, marvelously in the world as it once was.

—— Chicago Tribune

The Lightning Keeper is a big, old-fashioned panoramic feast of a novel ... A marvelous story.

—— Philadelphia Inquirer

This is a beautifully crafted book - at once a gripping adventure story and a compelling portrayal of human emotion at its bravest and its most vulnerable

—— Economist

The Colour is the produce of a large and generous talent, generous in its giving of enjoyment

—— Financial Times

An engrossing novel, an adventure story with a sensitive side

—— Observer

The Colour is a measured book, a diligent, painstaking book

—— Sunday Telegraph

She is a magical storyteller - it is as an artist that she excels

—— New Statesman

Brilliantly detailed and textured

—— Daily Mail

Tremain is the finest of historical fiction writers

—— Gloss

It's uncommonly well written, with a bountiful supply of manic energy... Would Paul Auster kill to write a book as playful, fast-paced and unashamedly populist as this? Doubtful, but somewhere there's a "Paul Auster" who might

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Sparky debut

—— Jonathan Barnes , Literary Review

Benedictus takes us on a trail of the contentious highs and lows of the rich and famous in a mixture of dark humour and sharp dialogue. For Benedictus, and his valiant debut novel, more of the same please

—— Ben Bookless , Big Issue

The story of the ultimate celeb after-party, it's a knowing wink at publishing and celebrity culture - a high-concept first novel sitting just the right side of salacious

—— Elle

The Afterparty avoids smugness partly because it has more affection that vitriol for the culture that it mocks... It's very funny, but sad, too... Well-drawn characters, smart dialogue and a canny plot

—— Anthony Cummins , The Times
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