The Brightness

by Chad Harbach

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.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, LGBT, Coming Of Age, Contemporary

672 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication October 27, 2026

About the author

Chad Harbach grew up in Wisconsin and was educated at Harvard and the University of Virginia. He is a cofounder and coeditor of n+1.

Visit:

Facebook.com/nplusone

Facebook.com/TheArtofFielding

Reviews

[Shannon Hickey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown & Co for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Wow, I really loved this book. It’s one of my favorite reads of 2026 so far, and I can’t wait for its wider release so I can discuss it with others!

At around 670 pages, this novel is a journey, but one that feels fulfilling and worthwhile. The Brightness is a deeply character-centric novel that fully immerses you in the cast. I was never entirely sure whether I liked or hated some of the characters (and my feelings often changed throughout), but I was consistently invested in them. At times, I felt like I knew them all personally.

Pella was the most interesting character to me but I was also captivated by Irma, Dahlia, Nick, Owen (and even Mike). Harbach is able to capture the uncertainty, confusion, and self-doubt of your early/mid-twenties with remarkable authenticity. I also loved how vividly he brings each setting and event to life. From Westish College to Block Island to New York City, I lost myself in the novel and felt like I was there.

Admittedly, I did not realize this was a follow up to the Art of Fielding (which I have never read). In fact, I only discovered this after I finished the book. That said, I had no trouble jumping into the story, and Harbach does an excellent job of bringing you into the world. It can absolutely be read as a standalone book (though now I definitely want to check out its predecessor).

There is so much to unpack and discuss within these pages, including themes of identity, friendship, regret, relationships, grief, change, guilt, gender, politics, and hope. It’s the kind of novel that asks for a commitment from its readers, but rewards that investment tenfold. This is a book that will stay with me for a long time, and one I’ll be thinking about for a while!

[Karolina Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you so much to Chad Harbach, Little Brown and company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC. I am incredibly grateful to have experienced this story before publication. The Brightness is scheduled for release on October 27, 2026.

Reading The Brightness felt like being handed a scrapbook from your twenties and being forced to relive every questionable decision, every friendship, every heartbreak and every time you confidently said “I have my life together” right before everything fell apart.

Pella is twenty seven, recently graduated, engaged to her longtime boyfriend Mike and seems to have a plan. Naturally, life looked at that plan, laughed and set it on fire.

I absolutely loved following Pella’s journey. She felt so real, messy, uncertain, hopeful, impulsive and occasionally the reason my eye started twitching. There were moments when I wanted to wrap her in a blanket and tell her everything would be okay and other moments when I wanted to yell “Pella, please stop making your life harder than it already is!” But honestly, that’s what made me love her. She felt like a real person trying to figure things out one mistake at a time.

Irma was another favorite. Her friendship with Pella was one of the highlights of the book for me. It felt authentic, supportive, complicated and wonderfully human. Owen, Dahlia, Nick and Mike all added their own layers to the story. Every character felt fully realized, which meant I spent a good portion of the book switching between loving them, being annoyed with them and then loving them again five pages later.

What really stood out to me was how well Chad Harbach captured that weird stage of life where you’re technically an adult but still feel like you’re making everything up as you go. The story explores identity, ambition, love, grief, friendship and regret in a way that felt incredibly honest. It’s about realizing that growing up isn’t a finish line. Sometimes it’s just a series of increasingly confusing choices with no helpful instruction manual included.

The settings were also fantastic. From Block Island to New York City, every location felt vivid and alive. I could practically hear the conversations, see the crowded streets and feel the energy of people trying to build a future while simultaneously questioning every decision they’ve ever made.

My only small complaint is that this book is definitely a commitment. There were a few sections where the pacing slowed down and some introspective moments lingered a little longer than I personally needed. But honestly, because I cared so much about the characters, I never felt tempted to stop reading.

By the end, I felt like I had spent months living alongside these characters. Their victories felt personal, their mistakes hurt and their struggles felt relatable in ways I wasn’t expecting. This book is thoughtful, emotional, funny, frustrating and beautifully human. It’s a reminder that nobody really knows what they’re doing, and somehow we’re all just trying to find our way through the chaos.

[Seawitch · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 🌟 Generously rounded up because something kept me reading!

I read and enjoyed the Art of Fielding and hoped to enjoy this book (which I received for free from the publisher) by the same author just as much. Since I read The Art of Fielding a long time ago, I didn’t realize at first that this book is a sequel.

The Brightness is a long 672 pages - at times very slow moving and at times very tangential or providing a lot of detail about things not germane to the storyline. Still, once invested in it, I was curious where it all would end so I kept reading, and reading, and reading. In the last few pages many loose ends were tidily pulled together.

I appreciated the attempt at a feminist activism plot but the execution fell short and most of the women are immature (more high school behaviors than university and 20 somethings) and mostly at the mercy of the whims of the men in their circle despite identifying as feminists. The plot was a stretch for me (and I work in higher education).

The characters seem to head in one direction and then reverse with inconsistencies. For instance, Mike is at first a great guy who loves and cares for Pella until suddenly he’s a cranky little shit who does a big stupid thing. Pella seems nice enough at first (albeit very insecure) but it turns out she has done (and does) a lot of stupid shitty things to her “friends.”

Owen is an “almost Pulitzer Prize winning author”, but he’s awfully shallow seeming and even charicature-ish at times.

Irma is really hard to picture. She’s naive but cagey. She’s inexperienced but also a sexual siren. She seems gay and obsessed with Dahlia, but then is interested in Nicholas. Who is she? I don’t really know and she doesn’t either. Well, maybe in the final pages she is making some progress but 600 pages is a lot of pages to get there, “I”!

Nicholas? Charming to all, and caring to his odd, feminist artist single mother (who just seems cranky/angry) but another little shit when it comes to women who all want him anyway because he’s SO beautiful and SO good in bed. 😏

Dahlia is a bit more fleshed out as a troubled young woman with a score to settle, but it’s hard to understand why everyone is so enthralled with/tolerant of her queen bee routine.

(This next thing would probably not have struck me so strongly except for it being just another example of something inauthentic. No woman I know ever calls a man’s sexual appendage by the word used by Pella about Nicholas’. I had to check the author’s name for gender because I knew a woman would not have used that word. And the deceased former university president’s favorite author friend just seemed like a real creepo in the way he spoke with Pella at that party. Way to not mentor the next generation, dude! So crass for an “educated” man. I know the book was not set in 2026, but it seems to be post #metoo. Men haven’t spoken out loud like this creepo in a while have they??

The young people in this book smoking cigarettes makes them seem so stupid, not glamorous. It’s not 1950. How are cigarettes cool again asks this former oncology nurse 🤦🏻‍♀️)

Oh well. Perhaps I’m just too old for this book and it’s unlikeable, self-absorbed, immature characters. The Gen Z and Alpha’s I know are more on the ball than these stunted Westies.

I received an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

[Kayla Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown & Co for the advanced copy.

Let me start by saying I generally prefer a plot driven book. To be honest, I don’t know what made me download The Brightness when it came through as read now. But I am SO glad I did! While long at 672 pages, I thoroughly enjoyed the novel and it didn’t seem like it was that long. Perhaps a side effect of a digital copy, but I digress.

I did not know this was a follow up to The Art of Fielding. While the characters carry over, you can absolutely read The Brightness on its own. I never once felt like I was lost or confused because I didn’t have all the character background.

Both Pella and Irma had a strong redemptive character arc, and they truly came to life on the pages. By the end of the book they felt like two real life friends, with their fair share of poor decision making, and lovable actions to boot.

I thought the multiple POV’s was executed flawlessly. There was a nice balance between the two and it was a change of pace from seeing the narrator change every other chapter.

While I do have some qualms with the book, it has more to do with my own quirks and less with the writing. I struggled with the Nicholas obsession when Pella is clearly a brilliant worthy woman. And for Irma I struggled understanding her obsession and obliviousness to how Dahlia treated her. Ultimately though, these parts make both characters who they are. So while I don’t understand it, I respect the literary choices.

Overall I rated this a 4.75, rounding up to five stars. One of my favorite reads so far in 2026 and I can’t wait for more people to fall in love with this story!

[Kim L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those rare books where the plot isn't the main attraction; it's the characters. Pella and Irma felt incredibly real, and I became so invested in their lives that by the end, they felt more like people I'd known than fictional characters. Their friendship is messy, supportive, frustrating, and deeply authentic.

What impressed me most was how perfectly Chad Harbach captures that in-between stage of adulthood where you're expected to have everything figured out, but you're really just making the best decisions you can with the information you have. Through themes of friendship, identity, grief, ambition, love, and change, the story feels honest and emotionally rich without ever offering easy answers.

Yes, the pacing slows in a few places, but because I cared so much about these characters, I never wanted to leave their world. I also didn't realize this was connected to The Art of Fielding until after I finished, and I had no trouble reading it as a standalone.

Overall, The Brightness is thoughtful, emotional, and beautifully written. It's the kind of novel that stays with you long after the final page.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the eARC!
Pub. date: Oct. 27th 2026
#TheBrightness #NetGalley

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

At 672 pages, The Brightness was a major commitment, but the reward was a powerfully resonant stand-alone novel about women and youth. Focusing on Pella and Irma—two twenty-something women at Westish College—Harbach crafts a story that sharply examines the lives and challenges of young women in a shifting, post-feminist landscape on the eve of the Trump era. Pella's experiences in particular reminded me of my own youth, including vivid memories of places like New York and even echoes of nights like Irma's on Block Island.

Sometimes Chad Harbach irritated me with his ideas of how a young woman might think, act, or feel. I wondered how a man can truly plumb the depths of despair and doubt of women so young, so confused. But I kept reading, and I'm so happy I did. The book took me on a personal journey through all those decisions I made in my early twenties. Difficult decisions in those young years will affect one's life for some time, perhaps a lifetime. I am so happy that CH wrote this book and that I had the good fortune to read it.

Thank you, Chad Harbach, Little Brown & Co via NetGalley, for this eARC. The book will be published on October 27, 2026.

[Tess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling it now - this novel is going to be the hit of the fall. The long awaited follow-up to THE ART OF FIELDING (a novel I adored and still think about), I didn’t even realize this was a continuation of that book’s story and characters until I was getting into this novel! Harbach once again writes with such clarity, world-building, and emotion. It’s a gorgeous book about coming of age, relationships (oh MAN there are some twists and turns with this one!) and sudden literary fame. It’s unexpectedly meta and made me want to read up about Harbach, which is something that doesn’t usually happen for me unless I’m reading a memoir.

It’s a campus novel, so perfect for fall vibes. It’s set in 2015 so perfect for nostalgia, and it’s a book about feminism written by a man which, admittedly, gave me some pause. But I think he pulled it off. The two main characters are women, and while he may not have 100% nailed the feminine experience (like no male authors can), it was an impressive effort, It’s a whopper of a novel at 672 pages but I breezed through it and could not put it down. Pre-order now to stay ahead of the curve, I promise this book is going to be talked about!!

[Andrew Langert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this novel, the follow-up to Art of Fielding, through NetGalley.

This is a lengthy (672 pages), well-written book set largely at a northern Wisconsin university. While the plot involves several young women pulling off a prank to promote feminism and/or to protest against male dominance, this is an extensive study of characters, focused especially on two women. Pella is 27, already married and divorced, engaged again to the assistant football coach. Irma is 21, a brilliant bookworm type who is ready to break out of her shell socially.

The setting moves to a destination wedding, a wild one, then to New York City when Pella finds the need to get away from her fiancé. The book concludes back in Wisconsin, with Pella and Irma coming to grips with their uncertain futures.

The length of this book was somewhat off putting, but the character development was brilliant. I found myself rooting hard for the characters to find a good way forward. But at the same time I thought the book would be even better if some things that did not contribute meaningfully to the story would have been left out.

[Cait Sully · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐

I appreciated the themes explored throughout The Brightness. While it took a while for the central premise to fully develop, I thought the ideas the author was exploring were thoughtful and meaningful.

This one wasn't the best fit for me. It took quite a while for the story to get where it was going and I struggled with the pacing during the first half. There was a lot of backstory and side details that made it hard for me to stay engaged. I never felt as connected to the characters as I wanted to. I found myself watching their journeys rather than feeling like I was experiencing them alongside the characters.

While I can appreciate the thoughts this book is trying to spark the execution ultimately didn't work for me. I think readers who enjoy slower stories with a heavy focus on character history will enjoy this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Scott Stelter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for an arc of this book!

It is hard to write a review for this book because of how deeply it connects to The Art of Fielding. I don't want to spoil anything but I think this book sort of devalues AoF. Or, possibly, I think this book is more like the gritty reality of the lives of the characters a few years after AoF ends, making AoF sort of an idealized version of what happen during their time at Westish.

That said, I did enjoy this novel and it was great to see where they all end up, even though I might dislike some of them immensely and have changed how I felt about them in AoF, which sucks!

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved 'The Art of Fielding' and have read it several times. With this book, I was glad to see the stories of Mike, Pella and Owen continue. I was amused at some of the twists in Owen's story.

But this story meandered along, its emotional power sapped, its main stories kind of hidden in its depths. I lost momentum. It offers a great deal to the right reader. Maybe I just liked baseball more as a central part of a story.

My thanks to All My Friends Books of Cortland, NY for the advance copy.

[Kiley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is long but so utterly absorbing in a way that I haven’t experienced since I read Claire Lombardo’s Same As It Ever Was - I don’t know that they have much in common apart from that they are both long, well written, and totally immersive, but I loved both of these books and that was the comp that most immediately came to mind. I wouldn’t describe this as a campus novel so much as one that is uniquely interested in the lives of women at various stages of maturity, and I really appreciated it for that. Thank you to Goodreads and the publisher for the advanced reader’s copy giveaway!

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

15 whole years ago, I loved The Art of Fielding a lot. This, a feminist novel written by a (presumably) gay man* containing a matryoshka conceit, is a bit of genius, fun for us fans, and strangely...worth the wait.

*he might not actually be gay, I have no idea.
(Do I want him to be gay in order to mitigate the ick I feel about enjoying a feminist novel written by a man? Maybe.)

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of, The Brightness, by Chad Harbach, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Pella her man Mike, and friends Owen, and other characters fill this way to long book. I did not connect with the characters at all.

[Michael]

Review TK.

[Elan Kluger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book you will want to seek out

[Ron Frampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well written book with a cast of characters you can not but help to love.