Coming August 12, 2025

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Thirteen-year-old Ambrétte Memenon has lived her entire life estranged from her family. After a series of financial failures, they reunite in rural upstate NY in the Spring of 1896. Together in the new house but basically strangers, Ambrétte endeavors to connect to her parents through their interests: Spiritualism for her Maman and electricity for her Papa.
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In her pursuit, Ambrétte is drawn into a deep abyss of the unknown as she learns more about both death and the invisible pulse of the human spirit.
PRESS
- Unruly Figures
- The Gravity of the Thing
​- Goodreads

Bender's Child of Light is an engrossing and enchanting work, following Ambrette's passage through a world both terrifically grounded and deeply mysterious. A sensual and attenuated reflection on the distances, on language and the ineffable, it is both ambitious and accessible, filled with an insatiable desire for something just out of reach. A melancholy, both romantic and mystical infuses the pages. A dark pleasure.
—Carole Maso, author of Defiance and Mother & Child