Lauren Belfer

By Lisa Littlewood

Those who enjoyed Buffalo native Lauren Belfer’s novel City of Light (a story whose setting is Buffalo in 1901 as preparations are underway for the Pan-American exposition) will be glad to hear that Belfer’s second novel A Fierce Radiance has just been released.

What Belfer seems to do best is to take historical topics that might seem uninteresting on the surface, delve into them, and return them to us as compelling narratives full of suspense, excitement and emotion.

A Fierce Radiance offers us another strong female protagonist, Claire Shipley. Shipley is a photojournalist for LIFE magazine who is assigned to cover scientists at the Rockefeller Institute in the process of developing penicillin. When we learn that Shipley’s own young daughter was killed by an infection that could have been cured by this ‘miracle’ medicine her assignment becomes even more personal. A Fierce Radiance has been described as “at once a thriller, love story, family saga and a window into American history, evoking the pure essence of war-time New York [City].” 

Belfer, who grew up in Buffalo and attended Buffalo Seminary, now lives in New York City but frequently visits family here. Native Buffalonians may be most interested to hear that Belfer still has an affinity for roast beef on weck, loves to visit Talking Leaves Bookstore and meander down Elmwood Avenue when she returns to town.