'I could not put it down' MADELINE CASH
The acclaimed author of The Art of Fielding returns with a long-awaited, immersive new novel. The Brightness follows the electric, chaotic, everything-can-happen lives of Pella Affenlight and her best friend, Irma, as they fumble their way into a larger world that won't stop changing.
At 27, Pella's life looks settled: she's a recent college graduate, engaged to Mike, her longtime boyfriend, and helping her friend Owen pull off his own destination wedding on Block Island. But over that wild wedding weekend, Pella's past and present collide spectacularly, blowing up her plans and sending her spiralling toward an unplanned future in New York City.
There, in a city that's equal parts glittering opportunity and cutthroat grit, Pella is forced to see herself in constantly changing lights as she wrestles with who she is and what she will become. As she cycles through possibilities and identities - is she an artist? A bartender? A scholar, a lover, a wife? - Pella navigates the heights and depths of passion and ambition, and the incalculable wages of love and loss.
In stunning scenes and spectacular characters, Chad Harbach captures that specific, shimmering anxiety of your twenties when life still feels wide open, even as hard and irreversible choices start closing in. Energetic, funny, and deeply human, this much-anticipated follow-up to The Art of Fielding confirms Chad Harbach as one of the most accomplished and perceptive writers of our time.
| ISBN: | 9780008536862 |
| Publication date: | 5th November 2026 |
| Author: | Chad Harbach |
| Publisher: | 4th Estate an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Pagination: | 672 pages |
| Genres: |
Contemporary lifestyle fiction Modern and Contemporary Fiction Narrative theme: Coming of age Narrative theme: Love and relationships Humorous Fiction |
'I could not put it down' MADELINE CASH
The acclaimed author of The Art of Fielding returns with a long-awaited, immersive new novel. The Brightness follows the electric, chaotic, everything-can-happen lives of Pella Affenlight and her best friend, Irma, as they fumble their way into a larger world that won't stop changing.
At 27, Pella's life looks settled: she's a recent college graduate, engaged to Mike, her longtime boyfriend, and helping her friend Owen pull off his own destination wedding on Block Island. But over that wild wedding weekend, Pella's past and present collide spectacularly, blowing up her plans and sending her spiralling toward an unplanned future in New York City.
There, in a city that's equal parts glittering opportunity and cutthroat grit, Pella is forced to see herself in constantly changing lights as she wrestles with who she is and what she will become. As she cycles through possibilities and identities - is she an artist? A bartender? A scholar, a lover, a wife? - Pella navigates the heights and depths of passion and ambition, and the incalculable wages of love and loss.
In stunning scenes and spectacular characters, Chad Harbach captures that specific, shimmering anxiety of your twenties when life still feels wide open, even as hard and irreversible choices start closing in. Energetic, funny, and deeply human, this much-anticipated follow-up to The Art of Fielding confirms Chad Harbach as one of the most accomplished and perceptive writers of our time.
The Brightness features in the following genres: Contemporary lifestyle fiction, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, Narrative theme: Coming of age, Narrative theme: Love and relationships, Humorous Fiction
The Brightness is available in Hardback
The Brightness was written by Chad Harbach and published by 4th Estate an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
The Brightness has 672 pages
£19.80