Lydia Fitzpatrick Books In Order

Publication Order of LydiaFitzpatrick Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Lydia Fitzpatrick is a renowned American writer of fiction and mystery stories. She made her debut in 2019 with a book called Nights All Night Long. Her work has featured in The Best American Mystery Stories, O. Henry Prize Stories, Glimmer Train, One Story, and various other literary collections. Before beginning her career in the field of novel writing, she was studying at Standford University on Wallace Stegner fellowship. She was also a fellow at the Wisconsin Creative Writing Insitute. Fitzpatrick had received a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation to pursue higher studies. She eventually graduated from the University of Princeton and later earned her MFA from Michigan University. As of today, Fitzpatrick resides in Los Angeles along with her loving husband and their beautiful daughters. Her mother is a historian from Russia. She lived in Moscow at the time of the Cold War and studied the situation. As a result, there was always a place for the Russian topics in her house.

When Fitzpatrick was small, her family hosted a couple of Russian students. They were selected to study in America because of their high academic prowess and were 6 and 10 years old respectively. One of them, Olga, was a piano prodigy; while the other, Tatiana, was an architecture prodigy. Fitzpatrick was a prodigy in nothing and so, she was in awe of the girls. She was deeply struck by the fact that the girls were chosen to undertake the adventure, leave their family and home and travel half of the world to reach there. It remained stuck in her mind even after she grew up and eventually inspired her to create the character of Ilya in her debut book.

Author Fitzpatrick visited Russia in the mid-1990s for the first time. She was a teenage girl at that time and was well-packed with mini-discs, books, and everything. But, all of them got punctured the moment she came across the dynamism of the country. Fitzpatrick could not help but get captivated by it. When the novel’s story evolved and Ilya’s character progressed to become more central, all the experiences that Fitzpatrick came across in Russia got included automatically. Fitzpatrick says that her characters are not actually based on the people she knows. She tries to pull tics and traits from people around her and infuse them in her characters. Sometimes, it comes as a quick decision and sometimes the decision to arrive at a character’s qualities takes too much time.

Ilya’s character came to her imagination in full form. Initially, Sadie was supposed to be the protagonist when the Ilya first emerged in the story. Then, Fitzpatrick could not stop writing about this character and before she could realize, the perspective had slipped from Sadie to Ilya. For Fitzpatrick, the key to developing any character is to find emotional commonalities. Recently, author Fitzpatrick has been working on several short stories. She claims to find it easier to switch on and off with short stories rather than novels. She is also working on a full-length novel, that she sold based on one of her screenplays. This book has nothing in common with her first book. Fitzpatrick started writing her first book when she was studying in grad school. At that time, the story revolved around Sadie. When she felt that things did not seem right, she wrote more about the character and her world.

Fitzpatrick wrote different versions and tried to work out many angles of the story. Then, she created a scene where Sadie comes across Ilya, an exchange student from Russia. And from there, the story took a different turn, making Ilya the primary protagonist. Fitzpatrick says writing her first novel was a process full of discoveries for her. She went through many ups and downs and was relieved when she realized that the story was complete and suitable for a release.

The debut book written by author Lydia Fitzpatrick is entitled ‘Lights All Night Long’. It was released by the Penguin Books in 2019. The lead characters depicted in this novel by Fitzpatrick include Sadie, ILya, Papa Cam, Vladimir, Maria Mikhailovna, Fyodor Fetisov, Marilee, Lana, Molly, Babushka, Sergey, Aksinya, etc. Fitzpatrick has set the story in Louisiana. The book opens by introducing Ilya as a 15-year-old boy hailing from Russia. He arrives in Louisiana as an exchange student and goes on to experience the most adventurous days of his life. Ilya is supposed to spend one full year in the United States and study. However, things are not completely right in the world of Ilya. Vladimir is his older brother, whose fate gets him consumed completely.

Back in his small Russian hometown, the dutiful wunderkind faced a magnetic rebel in the form of Vladimir. Ilya was very close to his brother. They used to spend their days thinking about escaping to the US and giving new beginnings to their lives. But, when the authorities selected Ilya for the exchange policy, Vladimir chose to disappear into the drug-plagued, seedy underworld of the town. Just before Ilya was about to leave for America, the usual calm of the town was rocked by the shocking news of the brutal murders of 3 young women. Vladimir was arrested as the main suspect and imprisoned on the charges of murdering the three women. While in Louisiana, Ilya comes close to Sadie and they become close friends. He shares everything about his life with Sadie and even tells her what his brother is going through.

Sadie promises to help Ilya in getting his brother released from prison. But, she carries her own secrets and does not want anyone to know about them. Ilya and Sadie embark on the mission of proving the innocence of Vladimir. They piece together the murders’ timeline and the descent of Vladimir into addiction, thereby discovering that Vladimir had taken extreme steps to protect his brother. Ilya could have learned this truth only after going away from him and vows to save his brother at any cost. This book tells a rich tale and a spellbinding story about the fierce bond shared by brothers determined to keep each other safe and having the dedication to get back to one another. It received huge praise from one and all and went on to become immensely popular.