The Brightness
Will be published approx. on 5. November 2026
Book
Hardback
672 pages
978-0-00-853686-2 (ISBN)
Description
'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 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.
Reviews / Votes
Praise for The Brightness: 'Captures the complicated nature of female friendship, and the wonderful excruciating confusion of growing up ... I could not put it down, except when I had to in order to savour it' Madeline Cash, author of Lost Lambs Praise for The Art of Fielding: 'First novels this complete and consuming come along very, very seldom' Jonathan Franzen, author of Crossroads 'A terrifically engaging novel ... you will be rewarded by a page-turning, beguiling and wonderfully warm-hearted read' Sunday Times 'A big, beautiful blowout of a book, sure and generous ... an exceptional debut' Guardian 'Wonderful ... a novel that is every bit as entertaining as it is affecting' New York Times 'An outstanding novel about sport ... in Henry Skrimshander, Harbach has created a character who will keep sports psychologists in conversation for years' The Times 'A charming, moving and slyly profound novel. You might even say Chad Harbach hit this one out of the park' Sunday Telegraph 'Dazzles and bewitches and inspires, until you nearly lose your breath from the enjoyment and satisfaction' James Patterson, author of Delusional 'An intricate, poised, tingling debut ... leaves you longing, lingering, and a baseball convert long after the last page' Tea Obreht, author of The Tiger's Wife 'Pure fun, easy to read, as if the other Fielding had a hand in it - as if Tom Jones were about baseball and college life' John Irving, author of A Prayer for Owen MeanyMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 45 mm
Weight
270 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-00-853686-2 (9780008536862)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Chad Harbach is the author of the bestselling The Art of Fielding and a co-founder of n+1. He grew up in Wisconsin and attended Harvard and the University of Virginia. He lives in California.