The Brightness: A Novel

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, Contemporary

Kindle Edition

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.

[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.

[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 · 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.

[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