High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! 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 us 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 and year 1906, it is based on the Grace Brown murder case —the basis also for An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (1925). It features by a girl who gets caught up in the events, who is also the narrator.