WellRead's December 2025 Selection: Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel

We're suckers for a good book cover and Aja Gabel's new novel has a great one – it was what first reeled us in! – but, equally, we want the contents of our books to live up to their great covers, so we were delighted that Lightbreakers made good on its visual promise.

Lightbreakers is a breathtaking exploration of grief, love and the lengths we’ll go to, to relive the past. Gabel weaves the perspectives of Noah, Maya and Eileen, creating a tapestry of intertwined lives marked by memory, loss, and shared experience. At its heart, there is an unthinkable loss – the death of a child – and the understanding that only the two parents left behind can ever truly comprehend the depth of that pain.

Through Noah’s scientific pursuits, Maya’s artistic vision, and Eileen’s quiet reckonings, Gabel examines how we move through the world when time itself feels like both a healer and a thief.

Themes of loss, marriage and partnership, the persistence of grief, the shaping power of memory, and the intersection of science and art pulse through this novel, making it a deeply human story wrapped in speculative wonder.

Prepare to be moved, challenged, and perhaps even broken open a little.

We hope you love this story and that it rounds out a fantastic year of reading for you.

The WellRead Team x