The Saint of Bright Doors
Vajra Chandrasekera
Hardcover / Ebook
ISBN: 9781250847386
Tordotcom, July 2023, 368 pgs

Vajra Chandrasekera’s debut novel The Saint of Bright Doors traces Fetter’s path from child assassin to misguided adult with the ability to see the devils, demons, antigods, and magical aspects of their world—like the mysterious and revered bright doors littered around the city. Fetter’s mother raised him to kill his father, the powerful leader of a cult. Now as an adult, he’s no longer destined to bring the end to his father’s religion; instead, he spends his days walking the city, dating guys, and going to therapy.

Chandrasekera blends the mundane and fantastical with political turmoil, religious control, and the struggles of the disenfranchised to create a slow beautiful burn of wonderful city descriptions and magical mysteries. Under all of that, but in no way hidden, are themes of generational, religious, and political trauma. Fetter has a very sarcastic, depressed view of the world around him, but for a guy whose shadow was taken at a young age by his mother, he’s pretty well adjusted.

Surrounding and calling to Fetter are the bright doors nestled all around the city of Luriat. Bright doors are hidden doors painted bright colors and maintained as though deserving of high acclaim, despite the fact they cannot be opened. Fetter encounters these doors and finds cold wind and a strong force surrounding their thresholds. While at moments, the mystery of the bright doors and Fetter’s place in it all were a tad confusing, the prose was beautiful and skilled all the same.

Even though Fetter is a trained assassin and the novel’s world is filled with demons and destinies unachieved, The Saint of Bright Doors isn’t as dark as I was expecting. Sure, there is darkness—and lots of it—but there is also hope and connection between the pages.