A Northern Light, or
A Gathering Light in the U.K., is an American historical novel for
young adults, written by
Jennifer Donnelly and published by Harcourt in 2003. The story is known as Realistic Fiction because of the untrue life story of Mattie Gokey, the real death of Grace Brown, and the events that could take place in the 1900s. Set in northern
Herkimer County, New York in 1906, it is based on the
Grace Brown murder case —the basis also for
An American Tragedy by
Theodore Dreiser (1925). It features a girl -the narrator-, who gets caught up in the events.