At Skylight: Aja Gabel presents LIGHTBREAKERS w/ Jade Chang
What would you sacrifice for more time with the people you love?
In the beginning, there was happiness. Maya, an artist obsessed with the nature of beauty, and Noah, a quantum physicist preoccupied by the mysteries of the universe, found in each other a shared curiosity about the world. But beneath the surface of their happy marriage is a third rail: Serena, the lost child who Noah had with his ex-wife, Eileen.
One day Noah gets a call from an eccentric billionaire, asking him to participate in a clandestine project aiming to unravel the secrets of time and consciousness. The couple agrees to relocate to the Janus Lab, deep in the desert, where Noah finds himself drawn into a dangerous kind of time travel that could result in seeing Serena again.
As Noah delves into this groundbreaking, fringe work, his past begins to overtake him. And when his ex-wife, Eileen, joins the project, Maya embarks on a journey back to her own past, one that takes her to Japan, to her family, and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah, Maya, and Eileen grapple with the balance between holding on and letting go, new information emerges that the Janus Lab might not be exactly what it seems.
A heart-achingly moving novel, Lightbreakers plumbs the mysteries of human connection, and explores how to love in a world where time is both a healer and a thief.
Aja Gabel is the author of the novel The Ensemble. Her prose can be found in The Cut, LA Times, Oprah Daily, and elsewhere. Her short story “Little Fish” was adapted into a feature film, and she has written for tv shows on HBO, Apple, and Disney. She lives and writes in Los Angeles.
Jade Chang is the author of What a Time to Be Alive (Ecco). Her debut novel, The Wangs vs. the World (HMH), won the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and has been published in a dozen countries. Her journalism and essays have recently appeared in The Best American Food Writing, and in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times magazines. She also writes for film and TV. Jade lives in Los Angeles.
