A lovely book; it somehow transcends the childhood experience at the same time that it does evoke the joys and pains of first love. It can be read as an experience in the present, or how such an adult experience should be. A fresh, charming book.

Forget perfume! Read me words of love.

A History of Light is straight from a bottomless well of the real stuff. This is the intensity, recklessness and sweetness I want from a lover. The innocence and abandon of a twelve year-old boy's first headlong plunge into his own heart, told over fifty years later with the seasoning and wisdom of a poet.

Light the candles. Pour the wine. Turn the page. Read me words of love.

I met Alvaro Cardona-Hine the summer after my Sophomore year in college, at his home in Truchas, NM. He was a charming man, who invited me in to his studio, and his home. He offered water or wine to drink, and then signed a gallery book of his paintings for me.

Two years later, I discover The History of Light.

I loved reading this book, I savored every minute of time that it took to read, and I walked away thinking love should be just like this

It is an adult version of childhood romance; it's also a remembering of loss. Sometimes on the border of being sentimental, it's very sweet. The prose is elegant,the words and ideas simple, without being simplistic. My favorite passage reads "Whatever seemed unfinished once now is undefinable. I had thought God interested in creating puzzles out of life when He had meant for me to stand in awe of beauty. What an easy thing to feel that is when it's messenger stands before me."

Another passage, worth noting, reads "Your fingernails, little as they are, have small white moons sailing over their crests. And your face has freckles, as though it had lain a whole night exposed to the elements and your skin had photographed the stars."