“In a world where success isn’t just about money or self-actualization, but how many people watch you enjoy it on Instagram, Radiant Shimmering Light is the literary equivalent of zooming out from the perfectly lit avocado toast sitting on a charming window sill to the dank, cramped apartment that your favourite lifestyle blogger actually lives in. . . . Smart and subtle.” ―Toronto Star
A nuanced satire―both hilarious and disconcerting―that probes the blurred lines between empowerment, spirituality and consumerism in our online lives
Lilian Quick is forty, single and childless, and works as a pet portrait artist. She paints the coloured light only she can see, but animal aura portraits are a niche market at best. She’s working hard to build her brand on social media and struggling to pay the rent.
Her estranged cousin has become Internet-famous as “Eleven” Novak, the face of a massive feminine-lifestyle empowerment brand, and when Eleven comes to town on tour, the two women reconnect. Despite twenty years of unexplained silence, Eleven offers Lilian a place at the Temple, her Manhattan office. Lilian accepts, moves to New York and quickly enrolls in the Ascendency, Eleven’s signature program.
In just three months, Lilian’s life changes drastically: she learns how to break her negative thought patterns, achieves financial solvency, grows an active and engaged online following and builds authentic friendships. Success! . . . But can Lilian trust everything Eleven says? Does the new life she’s built for herself represent who she truly is? This compelling, heartfelt satire asks: How do we recognize authenticity when storytelling and magic have been co-opted by marketing?
A sharply funny debut novel about female friendship, the face we show the world online, and being a spiritual girl in a material world
I hear the sound of the Universe texting me . . .
Lilian Quick has looked up to her cousin Florence her whole life. Florence is everything Lilian is not—brave, confident, quick to find adventure . . . and American. The women have been out of touch for years due to a family rift, but Lilian, childless, single, and self-employed as a pet portrait artist, has
been watching Florence from afar. Florence is now Internet-famous as Eleven Novak, the face of a compelling new feminine lifestyle empowerment brand.
When Eleven, after a twenty-year silence, offers Lilian a place at her Manhattan office, it comes with a promise. She will help her cousin rise up to her highest self—confident, affluent, and self-actualized—if Lilian enrols in the brand’s signature program, the Ascendency.
In just months, Lilian’s life changes drastically: an apartment in New York, a spiritual awakening, a growing bank account, and a shocking amount of influence. It is all a dream come true. But is this Lilian’s dream? What does Eleven want from her? Who is Eleven, really, after all these years? And who does Lilian Quick truly want to be?
“Vibrant, poetic and salacious… It’s no wonder that
Cake came so close to winning the Giller.”
