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The Brightness: A Novel
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.
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.
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First published October 27, 2026
About the author
Chad Harbach
15 books1,022 followersChad Harbach grew up in Wisconsin and was educated at Harvard and the University of Virginia. He is a cofounder and coeditor of n+1.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
August 21, 2026
3.75 stars.
I will never truly understand why this is a 700 page book. It could have been 375 and would have been magnificent.
I will never truly understand why this is a 700 page book. It could have been 375 and would have been magnificent.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
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.
November 3, 2026
Chad Harbach was a founder of an American literary journal “n+1”. His 2011 debut novel “The Art of Fielding” was something of a literary hit – pre publication stories about rights auctions, heavy hitting blurbs, a bestseller, appearances on book of the year and various debut novel prize lists and so on.
I have not read it – and its baseball centric nature means I never will (even if I did watch my first MLB match this year) – but its background is crucial to this, his second novel, some 15 years later.
The original novel was set in a small if prestigious college Westish – on the Lake Michigan shore. The key character is an impressive player Henry Skrimshander, taken under the wing of the team captain Mike Schwartz, whose off-direction throw hospitalises another player – his roommate Owen Dunne, a gifted English student who ends up having am affair with Grant Affenlight – the much older college President, grant’s daughter Pella ending in a relationship with Mike.
Crucial as this is a direct if metafictional follow up set some five years later in 2015. In the world of “The Brightness” – “Art of the Fielding” was a lightly fictionalised novel written by Owen under the tuition of Pella (whose real surname is Affenlicht), one which propels Owen to heavy literary fame (in what I think is a deliberately exaggerated version of Harbach’s own success).
Pella (whose father died) lives with Mike – who has moved from baseball captain to a hugely popular Assistant Director of Sport (the college having grown in sporting prestige) – the two having bought a house and Pella having rather passively settled for a rather domestic life of housekeeping and gardening – gaining much of her interest in life from her enrolment in the college courses as a mature student where she strikes a three-sided relationship with the much older Judy (a Professor of literature) and the younger Irma (a truck driving, rather wild-haired and unfashionable girl from a Conservative catholic background, who is also Judy’s star pupil – inheriting the status and even room previously filled by Owen).
At the novel’s beginning – in what a UK reader would think of as Fresher’s week but at Westish is known for “The Parties” Irma and two other older and feminist activist girls set out to enact a politically performative plot they came up with over the summer in a group they self-christened the “Witches of Westish” – to basically find drunken jocks and mark their heads with a semi-permanent tattoo “Rape Victim”. Irma – despite having developed the plot – rather chickens out, but both the other girls – Pammy tattooing a boy she sleeps with, Dahlia (a charismatic but troubled – having been put into rehab – student) the rival and roommate of a boy she sleeps with. As both victims are sports players Mike – a self-appointed maintainer of order at the Parties is involved – but his rather clumsy attempts to sort things out rather than report them earn him the ire of the college President and threaten his chances to get the soon likely to be vacant senior coach role. While Pammy takes the pragmatic and conciliatory approach and even starts dating her victim, Dahlia doubles down on her actions and is suspended, while everyone tries to hide Irma’s involvement so as to not threaten her academic success.
Meanwhile – and taking up much of the mid-section of the novel – Owen stages a lavish wedding on the Rhode Island Coastline to his partner Martin, relying heavily on Pella as organiser (Pella still resentful that her role in Owen’s success has been largely understated still remains somewhat in thrall to him) – it’s a wedding that attracts a series of literary, high society and art world personalities including: a charismatic lawyer who is also a well-known seducer, the daughter of a feminist artist and who famously wrote a take down review of Owen’s book; a high school rival of Pella’s (mainly as Pella seduced a teacher her rival had targeted) who now is an editor for the New Yorker; Judy – who unexpectedly takes up an invite to attend; Irma who even more unexpectedly comes as her plus one – and who decides to go somewhat wild at the wedding, inspired by Dahlia to throw off her normal inhibitions – a wedding which ends with two unexpected and drug induced hook ups which cause further tensions.
Pella ends in New York – staying at Owen’s apartment rather drifting through New York life as a bartender at a micro-brewery but also getting close to the lawyer. Meanwhile while the episode at Westish becomes the centre of a culture war – Dahlia and her cause being taken up by the titular feminist website, her victim defended (and the perpetrators condemned as a “harpies with sharpies” by a right-wing TV host), eventually a Free Dahlia campaign even roping in celebrities – Dahlia insisting on doubling down with eventually tragic consequences.
This plot description is at best a high level of what is an unashamedly maximalist, sprawling, old fashioned style novel – running at nearly 700 pages and I have to say far too long for my normal tastes, but one I was able to enjoy largely as I read it in a single day before and during a cross Atlantic flight.
I would also say that the characters and more specifically much of their milieu (particularly the privileged and pretentious art world wedding) was not really to my tastes at all.
I also think the novel suffered by being overtaken somewhat by events – it has I think been some 10+ years in the writing and was originally conceived and effectively remains in a world just at or before the start of the MeToo campaign, but certainly well before the recent terrible events at Cornell. And this makes the novel feel both oddly outdated (when it could be topical) but also perhaps a little too performative in its treatment of a serious issue – to a large (although not entire) extent the actions of the Witches (Dahlia excepted) seem rooted in an attempt to make a political point rather than actually motivated by events, and despite the culture war embedding, their seems to be (again Dahlia accepted) too neat a resolution – epitomised by Pammy effectively dating her victim from the start and then from what is perhaps a little too neat a resolution and restoration (if one informed by tragedy).
However, what I did really like about the novel was the meta-fictional aspects which extend past the Owen conceit. The bad review that Owen receives does appear based on one actual Harbach novel received and even more cleverly Harbach sets it up so that some of those criticisms are actually reversed in the real world of this novel – which is set out as a lot less softened/pleasant than Owen’s slightly whitewashed representation (this itself signified by the softening of Pella and her father’s family name). Further for a novel which was seen as rather too focused on one-dimensional male athletic camaraderie, this sequel deliberately examines female characters and with some complex dynamics (Judy, Pella, Irma, Dahlia – even Pella’s school rival – all seem to envy and resent aspects of the other’s lives). And the novel even ends with a metafictional twist with Irma driving off intending to fictionalise the events of this one.
So, while not a book I can unreservedly recommend it is one I both enjoyed as an immersive read (and would suggest perhaps best read over a winter weekend) and admitted for its self-aware meta-fictionality.
My thanks to 4th Estate for a paper ARC.
I have not read it – and its baseball centric nature means I never will (even if I did watch my first MLB match this year) – but its background is crucial to this, his second novel, some 15 years later.
The original novel was set in a small if prestigious college Westish – on the Lake Michigan shore. The key character is an impressive player Henry Skrimshander, taken under the wing of the team captain Mike Schwartz, whose off-direction throw hospitalises another player – his roommate Owen Dunne, a gifted English student who ends up having am affair with Grant Affenlight – the much older college President, grant’s daughter Pella ending in a relationship with Mike.
Crucial as this is a direct if metafictional follow up set some five years later in 2015. In the world of “The Brightness” – “Art of the Fielding” was a lightly fictionalised novel written by Owen under the tuition of Pella (whose real surname is Affenlicht), one which propels Owen to heavy literary fame (in what I think is a deliberately exaggerated version of Harbach’s own success).
Pella (whose father died) lives with Mike – who has moved from baseball captain to a hugely popular Assistant Director of Sport (the college having grown in sporting prestige) – the two having bought a house and Pella having rather passively settled for a rather domestic life of housekeeping and gardening – gaining much of her interest in life from her enrolment in the college courses as a mature student where she strikes a three-sided relationship with the much older Judy (a Professor of literature) and the younger Irma (a truck driving, rather wild-haired and unfashionable girl from a Conservative catholic background, who is also Judy’s star pupil – inheriting the status and even room previously filled by Owen).
At the novel’s beginning – in what a UK reader would think of as Fresher’s week but at Westish is known for “The Parties” Irma and two other older and feminist activist girls set out to enact a politically performative plot they came up with over the summer in a group they self-christened the “Witches of Westish” – to basically find drunken jocks and mark their heads with a semi-permanent tattoo “Rape Victim”. Irma – despite having developed the plot – rather chickens out, but both the other girls – Pammy tattooing a boy she sleeps with, Dahlia (a charismatic but troubled – having been put into rehab – student) the rival and roommate of a boy she sleeps with. As both victims are sports players Mike – a self-appointed maintainer of order at the Parties is involved – but his rather clumsy attempts to sort things out rather than report them earn him the ire of the college President and threaten his chances to get the soon likely to be vacant senior coach role. While Pammy takes the pragmatic and conciliatory approach and even starts dating her victim, Dahlia doubles down on her actions and is suspended, while everyone tries to hide Irma’s involvement so as to not threaten her academic success.
Meanwhile – and taking up much of the mid-section of the novel – Owen stages a lavish wedding on the Rhode Island Coastline to his partner Martin, relying heavily on Pella as organiser (Pella still resentful that her role in Owen’s success has been largely understated still remains somewhat in thrall to him) – it’s a wedding that attracts a series of literary, high society and art world personalities including: a charismatic lawyer who is also a well-known seducer, the daughter of a feminist artist and who famously wrote a take down review of Owen’s book; a high school rival of Pella’s (mainly as Pella seduced a teacher her rival had targeted) who now is an editor for the New Yorker; Judy – who unexpectedly takes up an invite to attend; Irma who even more unexpectedly comes as her plus one – and who decides to go somewhat wild at the wedding, inspired by Dahlia to throw off her normal inhibitions – a wedding which ends with two unexpected and drug induced hook ups which cause further tensions.
Pella ends in New York – staying at Owen’s apartment rather drifting through New York life as a bartender at a micro-brewery but also getting close to the lawyer. Meanwhile while the episode at Westish becomes the centre of a culture war – Dahlia and her cause being taken up by the titular feminist website, her victim defended (and the perpetrators condemned as a “harpies with sharpies” by a right-wing TV host), eventually a Free Dahlia campaign even roping in celebrities – Dahlia insisting on doubling down with eventually tragic consequences.
This plot description is at best a high level of what is an unashamedly maximalist, sprawling, old fashioned style novel – running at nearly 700 pages and I have to say far too long for my normal tastes, but one I was able to enjoy largely as I read it in a single day before and during a cross Atlantic flight.
I would also say that the characters and more specifically much of their milieu (particularly the privileged and pretentious art world wedding) was not really to my tastes at all.
I also think the novel suffered by being overtaken somewhat by events – it has I think been some 10+ years in the writing and was originally conceived and effectively remains in a world just at or before the start of the MeToo campaign, but certainly well before the recent terrible events at Cornell. And this makes the novel feel both oddly outdated (when it could be topical) but also perhaps a little too performative in its treatment of a serious issue – to a large (although not entire) extent the actions of the Witches (Dahlia excepted) seem rooted in an attempt to make a political point rather than actually motivated by events, and despite the culture war embedding, their seems to be (again Dahlia accepted) too neat a resolution – epitomised by Pammy effectively dating her victim from the start and then from what is perhaps a little too neat a resolution and restoration (if one informed by tragedy).
However, what I did really like about the novel was the meta-fictional aspects which extend past the Owen conceit. The bad review that Owen receives does appear based on one actual Harbach novel received and even more cleverly Harbach sets it up so that some of those criticisms are actually reversed in the real world of this novel – which is set out as a lot less softened/pleasant than Owen’s slightly whitewashed representation (this itself signified by the softening of Pella and her father’s family name). Further for a novel which was seen as rather too focused on one-dimensional male athletic camaraderie, this sequel deliberately examines female characters and with some complex dynamics (Judy, Pella, Irma, Dahlia – even Pella’s school rival – all seem to envy and resent aspects of the other’s lives). And the novel even ends with a metafictional twist with Irma driving off intending to fictionalise the events of this one.
So, while not a book I can unreservedly recommend it is one I both enjoyed as an immersive read (and would suggest perhaps best read over a winter weekend) and admitted for its self-aware meta-fictionality.
My thanks to 4th Estate for a paper ARC.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A little baseball, a little heartbreak, a lot of feelings I wasn’t expecting to have
I went into The Brightness expecting baseball. I did not expect baseball to sneak up behind me, tap me on the shoulder, and start asking me uncomfortable questions about ambition, friendship, failure, and what exactly we’re supposed to do with all the dreams we had before life got complicated.
Chad Harbach has written a novel that feels deceptively casual at first—almost like you’re just hanging around with a bunch of people who happen to be very serious about baseball. Then, somewhere along the way, you realize you’re emotionally invested in their lives and wondering when everyone became your problem.
There’s something wonderfully offbeat about the book. The characters aren’t polished little literary mannequins who always say the right thing. They make questionable decisions. They disappoint each other. They want things they probably shouldn’t want. They occasionally seem determined to make their own lives harder than necessary. In other words: they feel remarkably human.
And then there’s the baseball itself. Harbach understands that baseball is a particularly strange way to tell a story about being alive. There are long stretches of waiting, sudden moments of brilliance, ridiculous amounts of hope, and the occasional crushing realization that no amount of preparation guarantees the ball is going where you want it to go.
That turns out to be a pretty good metaphor for adulthood.
What I liked most was the feeling that the novel isn’t desperately trying to tell me what to think. It lets the characters be complicated and lets me sit with them—even when I wanted to shake them a little. There’s humor here, but it’s the kind that catches you off guard rather than waving a giant sign saying NOW LAUGH.
The Brightness left me thinking about how strange it is that we spend so much of our lives chasing some version of who we think we’re supposed to become—and how rarely life sticks to the plan.
Also, I now have slightly more interest in baseball than I did before reading this book, which may be the most surprising plot development of all.
A smart, funny, occasionally messy novel about people trying to figure out what comes next—and discovering that life, much like baseball, refuses to provide a reliable schedule.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.
I went into The Brightness expecting baseball. I did not expect baseball to sneak up behind me, tap me on the shoulder, and start asking me uncomfortable questions about ambition, friendship, failure, and what exactly we’re supposed to do with all the dreams we had before life got complicated.
Chad Harbach has written a novel that feels deceptively casual at first—almost like you’re just hanging around with a bunch of people who happen to be very serious about baseball. Then, somewhere along the way, you realize you’re emotionally invested in their lives and wondering when everyone became your problem.
There’s something wonderfully offbeat about the book. The characters aren’t polished little literary mannequins who always say the right thing. They make questionable decisions. They disappoint each other. They want things they probably shouldn’t want. They occasionally seem determined to make their own lives harder than necessary. In other words: they feel remarkably human.
And then there’s the baseball itself. Harbach understands that baseball is a particularly strange way to tell a story about being alive. There are long stretches of waiting, sudden moments of brilliance, ridiculous amounts of hope, and the occasional crushing realization that no amount of preparation guarantees the ball is going where you want it to go.
That turns out to be a pretty good metaphor for adulthood.
What I liked most was the feeling that the novel isn’t desperately trying to tell me what to think. It lets the characters be complicated and lets me sit with them—even when I wanted to shake them a little. There’s humor here, but it’s the kind that catches you off guard rather than waving a giant sign saying NOW LAUGH.
The Brightness left me thinking about how strange it is that we spend so much of our lives chasing some version of who we think we’re supposed to become—and how rarely life sticks to the plan.
Also, I now have slightly more interest in baseball than I did before reading this book, which may be the most surprising plot development of all.
A smart, funny, occasionally messy novel about people trying to figure out what comes next—and discovering that life, much like baseball, refuses to provide a reliable schedule.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
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.
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.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
Yes, this book is maybe too long and it does have some flaws, but that didn't make me enjoy it any less. I raced through it , absorbed by the world of Irma and Pella and their lives at Westish campus, and just couldn't stop reading. I hadn't realised this was a follow up to The Art of Fielding (which I loved), but you won't miss much if you haven't read that.
It's largely about friendship, love, growing up and deciding what to do with you life, plus it contains some themes that are actually very topical at the moment (I'm thinking of Cornell University here). The characters feel alive and bright and very human, and the dialogue is smart, fast paced and believable (except for one scene, which felt sooo 'cringe').
I absolutely enjoyed reading this!
Thank you Hachette Book Group and Edelweiss for the ARC.
It's largely about friendship, love, growing up and deciding what to do with you life, plus it contains some themes that are actually very topical at the moment (I'm thinking of Cornell University here). The characters feel alive and bright and very human, and the dialogue is smart, fast paced and believable (except for one scene, which felt sooo 'cringe').
I absolutely enjoyed reading this!
Thank you Hachette Book Group and Edelweiss for the ARC.
October 29, 2026
I read Chad Harbach's hyped debut, The Art of Fielding, when it was first published back in 2011. I didn't think it lived up to it's hype, but it had a an early John Irving tone that I enjoyed. The Brightness reminded me of later John Irving novels that are long just for the sake being long. The Brightness never gets off the ground. The characters are characterchures from every novel set on campus. There's a particular scene about a sexual assault miscommunication that is tasteless beyond belief. I looked forward to reading Harbach's long awaited debut hoping that he would expand on his potential, but didn't find anything that was worth it's decade of a wait or I should say weight. DNF.
October 16, 2026
This book, in no way, needed to be almost 700 pages.
Something kept me going because I was waiting for something to happen, but it really doesn’t. For a 700 page character driven novel, we really don’t get to know the characters. They’re all very surface level and even after finishing the book, I still couldn’t describe their personalities.
Their friendships didn’t entirely make sense to me in a way that I couldn’t understand the nature of any of them.
As I said, something kept me reading, it wasn’t an awful book, but it just felt emptier than I expected.
Something kept me going because I was waiting for something to happen, but it really doesn’t. For a 700 page character driven novel, we really don’t get to know the characters. They’re all very surface level and even after finishing the book, I still couldn’t describe their personalities.
Their friendships didn’t entirely make sense to me in a way that I couldn’t understand the nature of any of them.
As I said, something kept me reading, it wasn’t an awful book, but it just felt emptier than I expected.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I was one of the many readers that went crazy over this authors previous book, “The Art of Fielding.” That was the year (2011-12) that I remember feeling shocked to realize that both of my favorite new books (the other was “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” by Ben Fountain) revolved around sports teams. Both books were beautifully written, sensitive portrayals of masculinity, male friendship, and societal pressure.
A lot has happened in the 15 years since that first book. I was thrilled to receive an early copy of “The Brightness” but it has taken me a few months to process my response to it. My first response to the book was fairly positive, but the more that I have thought about it, the more I have felt mildly unsettled.
This is a sequel to “The Art of Fielding” set in the same rural campus setting a few years later and with several of the same characters, but it is primarily focused on women’s relationships this time, and although Harbach’s writing continues to shine, the story, which begins with a small, mostly symbolic, act of defiance against sexual assault on campus and grows into a school wide and then national conversation, despite the topicality of its subject, feels dated and even slightly insignificant (or nearly so) to this reader given the waves of revelation and pain that have emerged in the wake of #metoo and the many campus scandals, including, most recently, the Cornell case.
I think that had this book appeared in 2013 or 2014, I would have found it moving and relevant, but it now feels almost nostalgic of a less urgent moment, and the women characters never take flight in my mind. It’s also too darned long at over 600 pages. I wish that the author had been lucky enough to have a Maxwell Perkins-type editor to yank the book away from him several years ago. Rather than being too little, too late, it’s disappointingly too much, too late.
A lot has happened in the 15 years since that first book. I was thrilled to receive an early copy of “The Brightness” but it has taken me a few months to process my response to it. My first response to the book was fairly positive, but the more that I have thought about it, the more I have felt mildly unsettled.
This is a sequel to “The Art of Fielding” set in the same rural campus setting a few years later and with several of the same characters, but it is primarily focused on women’s relationships this time, and although Harbach’s writing continues to shine, the story, which begins with a small, mostly symbolic, act of defiance against sexual assault on campus and grows into a school wide and then national conversation, despite the topicality of its subject, feels dated and even slightly insignificant (or nearly so) to this reader given the waves of revelation and pain that have emerged in the wake of #metoo and the many campus scandals, including, most recently, the Cornell case.
I think that had this book appeared in 2013 or 2014, I would have found it moving and relevant, but it now feels almost nostalgic of a less urgent moment, and the women characters never take flight in my mind. It’s also too darned long at over 600 pages. I wish that the author had been lucky enough to have a Maxwell Perkins-type editor to yank the book away from him several years ago. Rather than being too little, too late, it’s disappointingly too much, too late.
June 6, 2026
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!
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!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I read and was impressed by The Art of Fielding over a decade ago, and was looking forward to catching up with the characters’ lives several years further on, in 2015 and later. Pella Affenlicht, who had been a precocious child, now feels she is behind all her peers, as she is only just finishing college at Westish at age 27. Her father had been the beloved university president, and she is slowly adjusting to life without him after his sudden death, and figuring out what her life will be. She is engaged to Mike Schmidt, now the football coach at Westish, but is helping him prepare to take the LSATs and hoping that he will be able to get into a school like Columbia so that Pella will be able to move back to her beloved east coast. She has wrapped up an intensive period of alpha and beta reading Owen Dunne’s first novel, which (in a meta fashion) is titled The Art of Fielding and features Owen, Pella, Mike and other Westish characters from several years earlier.
Pella has made close friends with Judy, her literature tutorial professor, and the only other student in the tutorial, Irma. Irma is from a down-at-heel Wisconsin town six hours west of Westish, and attends the university on the presitigious scholarship that Owen had in his day. Irma is friends with Pammy and Dahlia, and they call themselves the Westish Witches. Dahlia is a charismatic but erratic character, and Irma is enthralled by her audacity and nonstop ideas, especially the ones about radical feminism.
When Dahlia and Pammy execute a feminist assault on two campus guys, accompanied by a manifesto written by Irma, it causes not just a campus uproar, but makes national news. The act has serious consequences for several characters. Owen’s wedding in Block Island RI is the pivot point for the characters’ stories, especially Pella’s. Months go by after the wedding, until the key characters meet up in Westish and make plans for the future, based on the changes they have experienced over the winter.
Potential readers should be aware that this is a long book and the plot, especially the first half, plays out at a slow pace. While I stayed interested in the plot throughout, I was thrown by the characterization.
Pella is painted as a hugely talented and beloved person, but she seems feckless, self-absorbed, and thoughtless and sometimes downright vindictive to her friends. I wondered if this was Chad Harbach trying to make a point that the Pella in The Art of Fielding (both his version and Owen’s) is different from the real person now being revealed in The Brightness. That would be somewhat interesting, I suppose, but it wouldn’t explain the character of Irma, who is not in The Art of Fielding. She is supposed to be brilliant, a real star, but nothing about her portrayal makes that believable. The book has a bad case of tell, not show, when it comes to Irma. There are several other characters who don’t come off well either. Mike is supposed to be everybody’s friend, loyal and true, but becomes across a good deal of the time as a nasty jerk. Owen seems shallow, despite his supposed brilliance as a writer. Nick is supposed to be sexually irresistible, too, but seems like a user.
I was also puzzled by Harbach’s portrayal of American society in 2015. Feminism seems to be a much more powerful force than I recall it being. Media outlets for women have huge audiences and are so well funded that they can offer a college kid a salary of $240,000. I’m no expert in media, but that just doesn’t sound right to me.
The novels sets us up for another sequel in a decade or so, but while I appreciated some aspects of this book, including the descriptions of the natural world, I’m not sure I’ll be interested in another lengthy tome about Pella and her universe.
Pella has made close friends with Judy, her literature tutorial professor, and the only other student in the tutorial, Irma. Irma is from a down-at-heel Wisconsin town six hours west of Westish, and attends the university on the presitigious scholarship that Owen had in his day. Irma is friends with Pammy and Dahlia, and they call themselves the Westish Witches. Dahlia is a charismatic but erratic character, and Irma is enthralled by her audacity and nonstop ideas, especially the ones about radical feminism.
When Dahlia and Pammy execute a feminist assault on two campus guys, accompanied by a manifesto written by Irma, it causes not just a campus uproar, but makes national news. The act has serious consequences for several characters. Owen’s wedding in Block Island RI is the pivot point for the characters’ stories, especially Pella’s. Months go by after the wedding, until the key characters meet up in Westish and make plans for the future, based on the changes they have experienced over the winter.
Potential readers should be aware that this is a long book and the plot, especially the first half, plays out at a slow pace. While I stayed interested in the plot throughout, I was thrown by the characterization.
Pella is painted as a hugely talented and beloved person, but she seems feckless, self-absorbed, and thoughtless and sometimes downright vindictive to her friends. I wondered if this was Chad Harbach trying to make a point that the Pella in The Art of Fielding (both his version and Owen’s) is different from the real person now being revealed in The Brightness. That would be somewhat interesting, I suppose, but it wouldn’t explain the character of Irma, who is not in The Art of Fielding. She is supposed to be brilliant, a real star, but nothing about her portrayal makes that believable. The book has a bad case of tell, not show, when it comes to Irma. There are several other characters who don’t come off well either. Mike is supposed to be everybody’s friend, loyal and true, but becomes across a good deal of the time as a nasty jerk. Owen seems shallow, despite his supposed brilliance as a writer. Nick is supposed to be sexually irresistible, too, but seems like a user.
I was also puzzled by Harbach’s portrayal of American society in 2015. Feminism seems to be a much more powerful force than I recall it being. Media outlets for women have huge audiences and are so well funded that they can offer a college kid a salary of $240,000. I’m no expert in media, but that just doesn’t sound right to me.
The novels sets us up for another sequel in a decade or so, but while I appreciated some aspects of this book, including the descriptions of the natural world, I’m not sure I’ll be interested in another lengthy tome about Pella and her universe.
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
My starred review for this novel was published by Library Journal in August 2026:
Fifteen years after his debut novel The Art of Fielding became a beloved modern classic, Harbach returns to Westish College in this long-awaited follow-up. Pella Affenlight, the daughter of the late school president whose romance with baseball player Owen informed much of the earlier novel, has since graduated and lives with her fiancé, the captain of the championship team. Much of her time is spent helping Owen prepare for his swanky wedding. Meanwhile, her younger friend Irma, recipient of the same prestigious scholarship that once belonged to the prodigal Owen, becomes part of a politically motivated campus prank with far-reaching consequences. Over the course of nearly 700 pages, Pella and Irma will support and hurt each other—as only best friends can—as they navigate adulthood. Harbach writes with depth of character that evokes the best of Jeffrey Eugenides, and has a gift for staging memorable set pieces (none more so than the long centerpiece of Owen’s wedding). This can be read as a stand-alone, but naturally those who read The Art of Fielding will find echoes and resonances throughout. They may also hope Harbach chooses to drop in on Pella and Irma in another 15 years, just to make sure they're all right. VERDICT Luxurious and wholly absorbing, this novel was worth the wait.
Copyright ©2026 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
Fifteen years after his debut novel The Art of Fielding became a beloved modern classic, Harbach returns to Westish College in this long-awaited follow-up. Pella Affenlight, the daughter of the late school president whose romance with baseball player Owen informed much of the earlier novel, has since graduated and lives with her fiancé, the captain of the championship team. Much of her time is spent helping Owen prepare for his swanky wedding. Meanwhile, her younger friend Irma, recipient of the same prestigious scholarship that once belonged to the prodigal Owen, becomes part of a politically motivated campus prank with far-reaching consequences. Over the course of nearly 700 pages, Pella and Irma will support and hurt each other—as only best friends can—as they navigate adulthood. Harbach writes with depth of character that evokes the best of Jeffrey Eugenides, and has a gift for staging memorable set pieces (none more so than the long centerpiece of Owen’s wedding). This can be read as a stand-alone, but naturally those who read The Art of Fielding will find echoes and resonances throughout. They may also hope Harbach chooses to drop in on Pella and Irma in another 15 years, just to make sure they're all right. VERDICT Luxurious and wholly absorbing, this novel was worth the wait.
Copyright ©2026 Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. Reprinted with permission.
Read
November 4, 2026I got almost halfway through this but I can't. The Art of Fielding was phenomenal, but this follow-up is so dull and labored at the same time, and I do not want to read a middle aged man write about college feminism.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I didn't particularly like this novel. And yet, I can recognize that it likely will be shortlisted for a lot of awards. Maybe it's me.
I thought "The Art of Fielding" was very good, if flawed. It couldn't get out of the way of itself and I feel the problems that existed in that novel 15 years ago have been tripled with this one. But let's start positive. When Harbach is on his game...when he gets out of the way...his prose can be spectacular. There are some beautiful portions of the book and, like "The Art of Fielding" the ending really does work. You have to work to get there, but it does. And I really liked the character of Irma a lot - she felt real to me. Which is saying something since I intensely disliked both Dahlia (though I'm not sure you're supposed to love Dahlia) and Pella (I think you're supposed to like Pella). Irma's journey over the course of the book is really well done and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
But we need to talk about the problems of this book. For starters...it is too long. I don't have a problem with long books, but I thought "The Art of Fielding" could have cut 100-200 pages (particularly in the middle) and I singled it out for that in my review. This one could easily cut 300+ pages. There are vast portions were nothing happens. The marketing talks about it being a journey over the course of a year, but leaves out that a solid 50-60% of this book takes place over about ten days. Large portions of it could have been shortened or even excised. And while I mention that when Harbach gets out of the way of himself he can write some beautiful prose...when he doesn't...he can write some DREADFUL prose. There is a line at the beginning of one of the chapters that is one of the most tortured run-on sentences that even a high school ELA teacher would redline.
I didn't like Pella. At all. And I liked her in the prior book. But she comes across as shallow, needy, and self-absorbed right from the beginning and the decisions and choices she makes are really things that are all about her. I actively hated Dahlia, which feels bad because her story is very sad in a lot of ways. I could have done without Pammy. I didn't need as much Owen. I didn't need Nicholas at all. What is done to Mike and Henry will enrage people who loved them in the prior book. It is set 4 years after a novel that came out 15 years ago (essentially, set in 2015) but there are some references and anachronisms that make it seem like a novel from 2026. It just doesn't work.
And that's where we need to get to the meta of it all. I hated, hated, HATED the meta aspect of this. This isn't really a spoiler since it has been in other reviews and marketing, but in this book, Owen wrote a bestselling novel called "The Art of Fielding." He changed some details of lives and changed some names - so while this is a sequel, people have different last names (which is insanely confusing if you go back and look at the original novel). It is strongly implied that the novel you read, "The Art of Fielding" is the novel that Owen wrote...so it is a book within this book. And then at the end... Was it truly necessary to do this? I seriously have no idea what possessed the author to write it like that. It was if he was nudging me saying, "Aren't I clever?" and instead I wanted to scream.
There are people for which this novel will hit. I think the timing couldn't be better, given the events coming out of Cornell, for some of the discussion in it. And as I mentioned, when Harbach is on his game...his prose is absolutely incredible. This will very much be some people's jam. Some critics are going to eat this up. It didn't work for me. I think if it had been cut down to 400 pages, it might have worked better (though that would be cutting a solid 40% of the book's length), but I don't know that I can get past how little I liked Pella and how much I disliked the meta aspect of it. 3 stars - I tried. I really really tried. But that's as good as I can do.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for a chance to read an advance copy for review. All opinions are my own and were not compensated.
I thought "The Art of Fielding" was very good, if flawed. It couldn't get out of the way of itself and I feel the problems that existed in that novel 15 years ago have been tripled with this one. But let's start positive. When Harbach is on his game...when he gets out of the way...his prose can be spectacular. There are some beautiful portions of the book and, like "The Art of Fielding" the ending really does work. You have to work to get there, but it does. And I really liked the character of Irma a lot - she felt real to me. Which is saying something since I intensely disliked both Dahlia (though I'm not sure you're supposed to love Dahlia) and Pella (I think you're supposed to like Pella). Irma's journey over the course of the book is really well done and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
But we need to talk about the problems of this book. For starters...it is too long. I don't have a problem with long books, but I thought "The Art of Fielding" could have cut 100-200 pages (particularly in the middle) and I singled it out for that in my review. This one could easily cut 300+ pages. There are vast portions were nothing happens. The marketing talks about it being a journey over the course of a year, but leaves out that a solid 50-60% of this book takes place over about ten days. Large portions of it could have been shortened or even excised. And while I mention that when Harbach gets out of the way of himself he can write some beautiful prose...when he doesn't...he can write some DREADFUL prose. There is a line at the beginning of one of the chapters that is one of the most tortured run-on sentences that even a high school ELA teacher would redline.
I didn't like Pella. At all. And I liked her in the prior book. But she comes across as shallow, needy, and self-absorbed right from the beginning and the decisions and choices she makes are really things that are all about her. I actively hated Dahlia, which feels bad because her story is very sad in a lot of ways. I could have done without Pammy. I didn't need as much Owen. I didn't need Nicholas at all. What is done to Mike and Henry will enrage people who loved them in the prior book. It is set 4 years after a novel that came out 15 years ago (essentially, set in 2015) but there are some references and anachronisms that make it seem like a novel from 2026. It just doesn't work.
And that's where we need to get to the meta of it all. I hated, hated, HATED the meta aspect of this. This isn't really a spoiler since it has been in other reviews and marketing, but in this book, Owen wrote a bestselling novel called "The Art of Fielding." He changed some details of lives and changed some names - so while this is a sequel, people have different last names (which is insanely confusing if you go back and look at the original novel). It is strongly implied that the novel you read, "The Art of Fielding" is the novel that Owen wrote...so it is a book within this book. And then at the end... Was it truly necessary to do this? I seriously have no idea what possessed the author to write it like that. It was if he was nudging me saying, "Aren't I clever?" and instead I wanted to scream.
There are people for which this novel will hit. I think the timing couldn't be better, given the events coming out of Cornell, for some of the discussion in it. And as I mentioned, when Harbach is on his game...his prose is absolutely incredible. This will very much be some people's jam. Some critics are going to eat this up. It didn't work for me. I think if it had been cut down to 400 pages, it might have worked better (though that would be cutting a solid 40% of the book's length), but I don't know that I can get past how little I liked Pella and how much I disliked the meta aspect of it. 3 stars - I tried. I really really tried. But that's as good as I can do.
Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for a chance to read an advance copy for review. All opinions are my own and were not compensated.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The literary gods have delivered another long-awaited follow-up to a blockbuster debut. Unfortunately, unlike Kathryn Stockett's excellent "The Calamity Club," Chad Harbach's "The Brightness" has me wondering whether "The Art of Fielding" was a one-hit wonder.
I loved "The Art of Fielding." It was one of my favorite reads of 2022, largely because Harbach demonstrated such an extraordinary understanding of human nature. His characters were complicated, emotionally mature and wonderfully observed. So how did a return to the same people and setting produce something that feels like such a substantial step backward?
Nearly everyone seems to be experiencing some form of emotional regression, stumbling through quarter-life crises with less self-awareness than they possessed years earlier. The dialogue is frequently clunky, the humor occasionally juvenile, and the depth that made the first novel so rewarding is largely missing.
I also think Harbach made a mistake centering the novel on Pella and Irma. His observations about gender, ambition and the ways women and athletes are discarded as they age can be genuinely insightful, but his attempts to explore female sexuality and the female body are frequently cringeworthy. The extended attention to body parts and secretions is particularly baffling. Where did the writer who handled Henry, Guert and Owen with such remarkable sensitivity go?
The campus sexual assault storyline is another missed opportunity. Set in 2015, just before #MeToo, it should provide fertile ground for exploring power, privilege and the growing rejection of the "boys will be boys" mentality. Instead, the central prank sometimes feels like a moralizing Ice Bucket Challenge, and the women behind it aren't developed with enough depth to support the commentary Harbach is attempting.
And then there's the length. Nearly 700 pages, with remarkably little plot and much of the first 60% devoted to essentially two events. I enjoyed occasional stretches while listening, but rarely felt any urgency to return. A handful of scenes between Pella and Owen recapture the magic of the original, and one late tragedy delivers a genuine emotional gut punch. Unfortunately, those moments only emphasize how much of the novel feels unnecessary.
Perhaps the most disappointing decision is the ending, which makes the whole enterprise feel like a reboot masquerading as a sequel. After all that time, I wanted these characters to have grown into something more interesting, not simply repeat variations of what we'd already experienced.
I might have been more forgiving if Harbach had written an entirely new novel. But returning to Westish and its familiar cast invites direct comparisons with "The Art of Fielding," and those comparisons are brutal. It's difficult to reconcile the intelligence of his debut with the uneven, sometimes immature storytelling of "The Brightness."
Helen Laser does solid work with the narration, although even her performance felt a little uninspired. I suspect that's more the material than anything else.
Thanks to Libro.fm for the advance listening copy in exchange for my honest review.
I loved "The Art of Fielding." It was one of my favorite reads of 2022, largely because Harbach demonstrated such an extraordinary understanding of human nature. His characters were complicated, emotionally mature and wonderfully observed. So how did a return to the same people and setting produce something that feels like such a substantial step backward?
Nearly everyone seems to be experiencing some form of emotional regression, stumbling through quarter-life crises with less self-awareness than they possessed years earlier. The dialogue is frequently clunky, the humor occasionally juvenile, and the depth that made the first novel so rewarding is largely missing.
I also think Harbach made a mistake centering the novel on Pella and Irma. His observations about gender, ambition and the ways women and athletes are discarded as they age can be genuinely insightful, but his attempts to explore female sexuality and the female body are frequently cringeworthy. The extended attention to body parts and secretions is particularly baffling. Where did the writer who handled Henry, Guert and Owen with such remarkable sensitivity go?
The campus sexual assault storyline is another missed opportunity. Set in 2015, just before #MeToo, it should provide fertile ground for exploring power, privilege and the growing rejection of the "boys will be boys" mentality. Instead, the central prank sometimes feels like a moralizing Ice Bucket Challenge, and the women behind it aren't developed with enough depth to support the commentary Harbach is attempting.
And then there's the length. Nearly 700 pages, with remarkably little plot and much of the first 60% devoted to essentially two events. I enjoyed occasional stretches while listening, but rarely felt any urgency to return. A handful of scenes between Pella and Owen recapture the magic of the original, and one late tragedy delivers a genuine emotional gut punch. Unfortunately, those moments only emphasize how much of the novel feels unnecessary.
Perhaps the most disappointing decision is the ending, which makes the whole enterprise feel like a reboot masquerading as a sequel. After all that time, I wanted these characters to have grown into something more interesting, not simply repeat variations of what we'd already experienced.
I might have been more forgiving if Harbach had written an entirely new novel. But returning to Westish and its familiar cast invites direct comparisons with "The Art of Fielding," and those comparisons are brutal. It's difficult to reconcile the intelligence of his debut with the uneven, sometimes immature storytelling of "The Brightness."
Helen Laser does solid work with the narration, although even her performance felt a little uninspired. I suspect that's more the material than anything else.
Thanks to Libro.fm for the advance listening copy in exchange for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
A Messy, Beautiful Story About Friendship, Grief, and Being Human
*The Brightness* is the kind of novel that asks you to look beyond what people show the world and pay attention to the complicated person underneath. At the heart of the story is Irma, a young woman trying to understand herself, her family, and the people she loves. Her friendship with Dahlia and Pella shapes so much of how she sees the world, yet these relationships are far from simple. There is affection, jealousy, admiration, insecurity, and the constant struggle to understand what other people need from us. What I appreciated most was how real the characters felt. They can be funny, frustrating, thoughtful, selfish, and loving, sometimes all within the same stretch of the story. They make mistakes, misunderstand each other, and occasionally cause pain while believing they are doing the right thing. I found that very human. The novel also has a lot to say about the way we tell stories about other people. In a world where online conversations can turn complicated lives into simple public narratives, the book explores how quickly judgment spreads and how easily a person can become a symbol rather than someone with a whole life behind them. I particularly liked the way the story handles grief and guilt. Irma's emotional journey is not neat or easy, and the novel does not pretend that understanding your feelings will suddenly make everything better. Some of its most moving moments come from the slow realization that we cannot control everything that happens to the people we love. The writing is intelligent and often genuinely funny. Chad Harbach can move from sharp observations about college life and social behavior to moments of real tenderness without losing the distinctive voice of the story. The references to Shakespeare also add meaning, especially as the characters struggle with questions of identity, forgiveness, and the stories they tell themselves. I will admit that the novel can feel demanding at times. It is long, it takes its time with the characters, and there are moments when the many relationships and shifting perspectives ask for patience. Readers looking for a fast-moving plot may find it slower than expected. But for me, the strength of *The Brightness* lies in its willingness to let people remain complicated. It does not offer easy heroes or simple answers. Instead, it gives us flawed people trying to find their way through friendship, love, public judgment, and loss. By the end, I was left thinking about how often we blame ourselves for things beyond our control, how difficult forgiveness can be, and how much we need other people even when we struggle to let them close. A thoughtful, ambitious, and emotionally layered novel that rewards readers who enjoy spending time with complicated characters. It may not be a quick read, but it gives you plenty to think about after the final page.
*The Brightness* is the kind of novel that asks you to look beyond what people show the world and pay attention to the complicated person underneath. At the heart of the story is Irma, a young woman trying to understand herself, her family, and the people she loves. Her friendship with Dahlia and Pella shapes so much of how she sees the world, yet these relationships are far from simple. There is affection, jealousy, admiration, insecurity, and the constant struggle to understand what other people need from us. What I appreciated most was how real the characters felt. They can be funny, frustrating, thoughtful, selfish, and loving, sometimes all within the same stretch of the story. They make mistakes, misunderstand each other, and occasionally cause pain while believing they are doing the right thing. I found that very human. The novel also has a lot to say about the way we tell stories about other people. In a world where online conversations can turn complicated lives into simple public narratives, the book explores how quickly judgment spreads and how easily a person can become a symbol rather than someone with a whole life behind them. I particularly liked the way the story handles grief and guilt. Irma's emotional journey is not neat or easy, and the novel does not pretend that understanding your feelings will suddenly make everything better. Some of its most moving moments come from the slow realization that we cannot control everything that happens to the people we love. The writing is intelligent and often genuinely funny. Chad Harbach can move from sharp observations about college life and social behavior to moments of real tenderness without losing the distinctive voice of the story. The references to Shakespeare also add meaning, especially as the characters struggle with questions of identity, forgiveness, and the stories they tell themselves. I will admit that the novel can feel demanding at times. It is long, it takes its time with the characters, and there are moments when the many relationships and shifting perspectives ask for patience. Readers looking for a fast-moving plot may find it slower than expected. But for me, the strength of *The Brightness* lies in its willingness to let people remain complicated. It does not offer easy heroes or simple answers. Instead, it gives us flawed people trying to find their way through friendship, love, public judgment, and loss. By the end, I was left thinking about how often we blame ourselves for things beyond our control, how difficult forgiveness can be, and how much we need other people even when we struggle to let them close. A thoughtful, ambitious, and emotionally layered novel that rewards readers who enjoy spending time with complicated characters. It may not be a quick read, but it gives you plenty to think about after the final page.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Welcome back to Westish College! Fifteen years after The Art of Fielding, Harbach finally returns with this sequel-ish follow-up set a few years after the events of his debut novel. (Remember Owen and Pella and Mike?)
This loooong (nearly 700 pages) character-driven campus story is a perfect autumn read. But it’s not a perfect novel.
I get to review this for the Chicago Review of Books, so stay tuned for much, much more on what I think is one of the publishing events of the year. I loved it, flaws and all. And I can’t wait to see what other readers think.
This loooong (nearly 700 pages) character-driven campus story is a perfect autumn read. But it’s not a perfect novel.
I get to review this for the Chicago Review of Books, so stay tuned for much, much more on what I think is one of the publishing events of the year. I loved it, flaws and all. And I can’t wait to see what other readers think.
October 12, 2026
As a fan of The Art of Fielding, I am sad to say The Brightness did not work for me. Chad Harbach’s inability to let go of his previous novel results in once-beloved characters turning into problematic narcissists without explanation. He blends the plotlines of old and new characters with what seems like Scotch tape. It’s a nearly 700-page novel that somehow never fully commits to its characters and its topics.
I am going to give Harbach the benefit of the doubt that his intentions were sincere in his attempts to capture what it’s like to be a (white) woman, but much of it is underrealized and hollow. Are we really expected to claim a novel is feminist because a man writes about a woman’s period and kind of sort of acknowledges college administrators' complicity in campus rape culture? The period scenes were so random I am still scratching my head over what to make of them. He attempts to capture rape culture without ever actually saying anything about it. With everything currently going on at Cornell, I can see this novel either becoming the new Beartown because it talks about rape while being palatable enough for broader audiences, or I can see Harbach being skewered because it is abundantly clear he doesn’t fully get it. I don’t think Harbach deserves to be skewered, but I do think there needs to be more of a dialogue around novels like Beartown and The Brightness and what they omit from the conversation - which is the actual victim.
Ultimately, the lack of point of view is what led to this novel’s demise, but Harbach would have served himself better if he had made The Brightness into two novels, with one focusing on Pella and another focused on Irma. It would have allowed him to thoroughly flesh out their motivations and not be distracted by trying to force their two worlds to overlap. So much more could have been sad in far fewer words. We never truly learn what motivates each character or what creates the tension within their relationship dynamics, which makes the plotlines feel convenient rather than authentic. Many of the decisions made by Pella and Irma left me absolutely baffled and with that all-too-familiar feeling of wanting to roll my eyes when a man who only kind of gets it writes female characters.
A disappointing read for a follow-up I was highly anticipating. Alas! But on to the next! Thank you to the publisher for sending The Brightness my way.
I am going to give Harbach the benefit of the doubt that his intentions were sincere in his attempts to capture what it’s like to be a (white) woman, but much of it is underrealized and hollow. Are we really expected to claim a novel is feminist because a man writes about a woman’s period and kind of sort of acknowledges college administrators' complicity in campus rape culture? The period scenes were so random I am still scratching my head over what to make of them. He attempts to capture rape culture without ever actually saying anything about it. With everything currently going on at Cornell, I can see this novel either becoming the new Beartown because it talks about rape while being palatable enough for broader audiences, or I can see Harbach being skewered because it is abundantly clear he doesn’t fully get it. I don’t think Harbach deserves to be skewered, but I do think there needs to be more of a dialogue around novels like Beartown and The Brightness and what they omit from the conversation - which is the actual victim.
Ultimately, the lack of point of view is what led to this novel’s demise, but Harbach would have served himself better if he had made The Brightness into two novels, with one focusing on Pella and another focused on Irma. It would have allowed him to thoroughly flesh out their motivations and not be distracted by trying to force their two worlds to overlap. So much more could have been sad in far fewer words. We never truly learn what motivates each character or what creates the tension within their relationship dynamics, which makes the plotlines feel convenient rather than authentic. Many of the decisions made by Pella and Irma left me absolutely baffled and with that all-too-familiar feeling of wanting to roll my eyes when a man who only kind of gets it writes female characters.
A disappointing read for a follow-up I was highly anticipating. Alas! But on to the next! Thank you to the publisher for sending The Brightness my way.
September 19, 2026
The Brightness by Chad Harbach is a recommended literary character study following the friendship of two young women. This is a sequel to The Art of Fielding (2011).
At Westish College in a small Wisconsin town, Pella, 27 is a recent college grad, engaged to coach Mike, and helping her friend Owen pull off a destination wedding. Her best friend Irma, 21, has just returned for her senior year. Unknown to Pella, on the night Irma returns to campus, she has plans with her other friends Dahlia and Pammy to institute "The Project," a politically charged prank, at The Parties.
Featuring in-depth character development, the well-written narrative follows the lives and history of these individuals in great depth through five parts. You will generally wonder about what will ultimately happen to them, but in a removed way as it is very slow paced so it was a challenge at times to keep invested in the plot. I was also personally struggling to truly care about these young characters, who at times felt immature for their years. At almost 700 pages there were perhaps too many superfluous details included, certainly too much for me as the pacing became very slow. Admittedly I did not read The Art of Fielding so I had no real investment in continuing the earlier story.
I did think the opening prank was ill conceived and the logical repercussions were not thought out. This did establish a barrier to truly liking any of these young women who all seemed self-absorbed and immature, without logically thinking things through. The whole destination wedding plot was also off-putting for me. Perhaps I'm becoming an old curmudgeon, but I loss interest and it became a challenge to finish. Perhaps a good edit could have tightened up the story or I'm just an outlier or not the intended audience, but this was just an okay novel. I do like the book cover, though.
The Brightness is recommended for those who enjoy very detailed writing, descriptive character development, and have read The Art of Fielding. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
https://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/...
At Westish College in a small Wisconsin town, Pella, 27 is a recent college grad, engaged to coach Mike, and helping her friend Owen pull off a destination wedding. Her best friend Irma, 21, has just returned for her senior year. Unknown to Pella, on the night Irma returns to campus, she has plans with her other friends Dahlia and Pammy to institute "The Project," a politically charged prank, at The Parties.
Featuring in-depth character development, the well-written narrative follows the lives and history of these individuals in great depth through five parts. You will generally wonder about what will ultimately happen to them, but in a removed way as it is very slow paced so it was a challenge at times to keep invested in the plot. I was also personally struggling to truly care about these young characters, who at times felt immature for their years. At almost 700 pages there were perhaps too many superfluous details included, certainly too much for me as the pacing became very slow. Admittedly I did not read The Art of Fielding so I had no real investment in continuing the earlier story.
I did think the opening prank was ill conceived and the logical repercussions were not thought out. This did establish a barrier to truly liking any of these young women who all seemed self-absorbed and immature, without logically thinking things through. The whole destination wedding plot was also off-putting for me. Perhaps I'm becoming an old curmudgeon, but I loss interest and it became a challenge to finish. Perhaps a good edit could have tightened up the story or I'm just an outlier or not the intended audience, but this was just an okay novel. I do like the book cover, though.
The Brightness is recommended for those who enjoy very detailed writing, descriptive character development, and have read The Art of Fielding. Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for providing me with an advance reader's copy via NetGalley. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.
https://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2026/...
Did Not Finish
October 22, 2026I am DNFing this huge book at 50%.
The big beginning tries to subvert an already pervasive suspicion that women fabricate sexual violence. I really hate this idea, especially coming from a male author. However, I feel that if a novel does use that idea, it needs to be something other than a provocative stunt. Separate from that, the women don’t feel convincingly real, the dialogue is pretty bad, and I have no idea where this narrative is going.
The big beginning tries to subvert an already pervasive suspicion that women fabricate sexual violence. I really hate this idea, especially coming from a male author. However, I feel that if a novel does use that idea, it needs to be something other than a provocative stunt. Separate from that, the women don’t feel convincingly real, the dialogue is pretty bad, and I have no idea where this narrative is going.
October 30, 2026
On Labor Day, under the crabapple tree in her backyard, Pella Affenlicht serves her two closest friends gin fizzes, salmon and a cherry cobbler she baked that morning. She has graduated from Westish College at twenty-seven, years late, and she assumes the Tuesday reading sessions she shares with her professor Judy and the gifted senior Irma will carry on. Irma, mostly looking at her phone, tells her they won't. Then she lists the men Pella spends her days looking after: a fiancé who will not study for his exam, a friend whose wedding she is organising, even the dog. The Brightness by Chad Harbach spends 672 pages on the question that lunch raises. What is a clever, generous woman supposed to do with her life once the people she helps no longer need her?
It is Harbach's first novel since The Art of Fielding in 2011, and it goes back to the same small Wisconsin college on Lake Michigan. Pella was the president's daughter in that book. Here she is the lead, with Irma beside her, and The Brightness by Chad Harbach is out now, published by Little, Brown on 27 October 2026. You don't need the earlier novel, though readers who know it will get an extra joke. In this world, The Art of Fielding was written by Owen Dunne, the bridegroom Pella is helping, and he built it out of the confidences she typed to him at three in the morning after her father died. He even softened her surname, Affenlicht, into something gentler for the page. Pella's resentment of that book, which she helped shape and got no credit for, runs through everything that follows.
Two Women and the Year They Pull Apart
The heart of the novel is the friendship, and Harbach builds it from small, exact gestures. Irma met Pella as a freshman when Judy pulled up a third chair at their sessions. Within weeks the younger woman was out-reading her on Edith Wharton. Then, unasked, she arrived with a truck full of seedlings and tools and dug her a vegetable garden, before more or less losing interest in it. The garden was a gift of time, and Pella knows it. Its tomatoes keep turning up across the book as a record of what the two still owe each other.
What makes the thread work is that both women are partly right about each other. Irma is a farm girl on a full scholarship, the daughter of a fierce Catholic mother she claims to escape and then phones every day. She sees Pella as hiding in a cosy house from a life she is afraid to start. Pella sees Irma as a prodigy so sure of her path that she has never had to fail. The quarrels between them are among the best dialogue Harbach has written, and he never lets one side win.
He alternates their points of view chapter by chapter in close third person, across five parts that move from Westish to a wedding on Block Island, then to New York, and back. He also slips into other heads: a hungover football captain, the college president, a chemistry student in love. Irma is the more memorable creation. She is tiny and stubborn, and very funny about her mother, her truck and her own priggishness. In The Brightness by Chad Harbach she gives the book its sharpest edge.
A Prank That Becomes a National Story
Against the friendship runs the plot that drives the first third. On the night of the college's huge Labor Day parties, Irma and her friends Dahlia and Pammy, who call themselves the Witches of Westish, stencil RAPE VICTIM in long-lasting jagua ink across the foreheads of two sleeping football players. Harbach tells the morning after from the players' side, first with a roommate gently scrubbing a stunned captain's face with a towel and then with a teammate's tantrum caught on a phone.
The irony is that the college motto, WE ARE ONE, came from Mike, Pella's fiancé and a coach. He lifted it from Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving and watched it spread from the huddle to every banner on campus. Now the motto hangs over a story about how divided the place is. President Molina takes the case away from him and frames it around Title IX, while a cable host turns it into a crusade for wronged young men. The interrogation scene between Molina and Dahlia is a superb two-hander. The Brightness by Chad Harbach is careful to give every party, Mike and the pranked captain included, a real case, and that even-handedness is the source of most of its tension.
Where Chad Harbach Gives Ground
It is much too long. Part Two covers a single wedding weekend and takes up more than a fifth of the novel. Its middle stretch is guest lists, outfits and circling over who is attracted to whom.
The media satire is thin. The feminist website that gives the book its title and the cable host who rails against it are broad sketches next to the finely observed people around them.
Pella disappears when it matters. The fourth part belongs entirely to Irma. It is moving, but the lead of The Brightness by Chad Harbach vanishes for a long stretch just as her own story peaks.
The sex scenes overreach. Harbach is frank and often good on women's bodies, but one extended passage in New York tips into purple prose that even the narration seems embarrassed by.
Worth Your Shelf
This is a generous, overstuffed, often wonderful novel. It would be better at two thirds of the length, and it trusts its talk more than its plot. But the friendship at its centre is drawn with real tenderness, the comedy is sharp, and the late chapters about grief are the finest Harbach has written. We read it from an advance galley, so the finished text may differ in places. The Brightness by Chad Harbach is a book about two women working out what to do with their gifts, and by its last page you will be glad you kept them company.
It is Harbach's first novel since The Art of Fielding in 2011, and it goes back to the same small Wisconsin college on Lake Michigan. Pella was the president's daughter in that book. Here she is the lead, with Irma beside her, and The Brightness by Chad Harbach is out now, published by Little, Brown on 27 October 2026. You don't need the earlier novel, though readers who know it will get an extra joke. In this world, The Art of Fielding was written by Owen Dunne, the bridegroom Pella is helping, and he built it out of the confidences she typed to him at three in the morning after her father died. He even softened her surname, Affenlicht, into something gentler for the page. Pella's resentment of that book, which she helped shape and got no credit for, runs through everything that follows.
Two Women and the Year They Pull Apart
The heart of the novel is the friendship, and Harbach builds it from small, exact gestures. Irma met Pella as a freshman when Judy pulled up a third chair at their sessions. Within weeks the younger woman was out-reading her on Edith Wharton. Then, unasked, she arrived with a truck full of seedlings and tools and dug her a vegetable garden, before more or less losing interest in it. The garden was a gift of time, and Pella knows it. Its tomatoes keep turning up across the book as a record of what the two still owe each other.
What makes the thread work is that both women are partly right about each other. Irma is a farm girl on a full scholarship, the daughter of a fierce Catholic mother she claims to escape and then phones every day. She sees Pella as hiding in a cosy house from a life she is afraid to start. Pella sees Irma as a prodigy so sure of her path that she has never had to fail. The quarrels between them are among the best dialogue Harbach has written, and he never lets one side win.
He alternates their points of view chapter by chapter in close third person, across five parts that move from Westish to a wedding on Block Island, then to New York, and back. He also slips into other heads: a hungover football captain, the college president, a chemistry student in love. Irma is the more memorable creation. She is tiny and stubborn, and very funny about her mother, her truck and her own priggishness. In The Brightness by Chad Harbach she gives the book its sharpest edge.
A Prank That Becomes a National Story
Against the friendship runs the plot that drives the first third. On the night of the college's huge Labor Day parties, Irma and her friends Dahlia and Pammy, who call themselves the Witches of Westish, stencil RAPE VICTIM in long-lasting jagua ink across the foreheads of two sleeping football players. Harbach tells the morning after from the players' side, first with a roommate gently scrubbing a stunned captain's face with a towel and then with a teammate's tantrum caught on a phone.
The irony is that the college motto, WE ARE ONE, came from Mike, Pella's fiancé and a coach. He lifted it from Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving and watched it spread from the huddle to every banner on campus. Now the motto hangs over a story about how divided the place is. President Molina takes the case away from him and frames it around Title IX, while a cable host turns it into a crusade for wronged young men. The interrogation scene between Molina and Dahlia is a superb two-hander. The Brightness by Chad Harbach is careful to give every party, Mike and the pranked captain included, a real case, and that even-handedness is the source of most of its tension.
Where Chad Harbach Gives Ground
It is much too long. Part Two covers a single wedding weekend and takes up more than a fifth of the novel. Its middle stretch is guest lists, outfits and circling over who is attracted to whom.
The media satire is thin. The feminist website that gives the book its title and the cable host who rails against it are broad sketches next to the finely observed people around them.
Pella disappears when it matters. The fourth part belongs entirely to Irma. It is moving, but the lead of The Brightness by Chad Harbach vanishes for a long stretch just as her own story peaks.
The sex scenes overreach. Harbach is frank and often good on women's bodies, but one extended passage in New York tips into purple prose that even the narration seems embarrassed by.
Worth Your Shelf
This is a generous, overstuffed, often wonderful novel. It would be better at two thirds of the length, and it trusts its talk more than its plot. But the friendship at its centre is drawn with real tenderness, the comedy is sharp, and the late chapters about grief are the finest Harbach has written. We read it from an advance galley, so the finished text may differ in places. The Brightness by Chad Harbach is a book about two women working out what to do with their gifts, and by its last page you will be glad you kept them company.
Review of advance copy
What was the point?? I read over 600 pages and I didn't care about any characters. They were all awful except for a couple side characters.
I basically finished the book and thought 'who cares?'
There were some points that I thought something would happen to make me feel something for these characters and it never came.
I basically finished the book and thought 'who cares?'
There were some points that I thought something would happen to make me feel something for these characters and it never came.
October 30, 2026
A tale of two friends whose lives take unexpected turns
Pella is in her late twenties and has, after a failed marriage and a delayed start into higher education, recently graduated from Westish College. She's engaged to Mike, her boyfriend of many years who is now a coach at Westish where he was once a star athlete. Her life seems to be in a good place as she helps her bestselling author friend Owen plan an over-the-top wedding on Block Island. Meanwhile her friend Irma, a very smart if socially awkward student from a rural and religious town, has concocted a prank with two other friends to raise awareness of campus sexual assault (using two drunk male athletes as a canvas upon which to put a message) which has a wider reaching result than she had anticipated. The prank goes viral, making the news nationally, and causing unexpected fallout for the college and Irma. Owen's wedding becomes the catalyst for chaos in both Pella's and Irma's lives; Pella's engagement to Mike is called off and she ends up in New York trying to sort out what she wants from life, while Irma has to deal with the havoc her prank has wrought on the campus and on her future..
The Brightness is an ambitious (and very long at over 670 pages) character-driven campus novel, a sequel to author Chad Harbach's debut novel, The Art of Fielding, which was released 15 years ago. I had not read the earlier novel, and as a result I was not familiar with Westish College and its denizens which likely affected how much I enjoyed this novel. That said, I found the author's character development extremely strong and sense of place equally accomplished. The narrative takes on friendship, ambition, identity, campus assault, and life on and post campus, dealing warmly with the complex, sometimes comedic world of the college campus. The overall tone is one of affection and Midwestern sensibilities that tackles some heavy issues without overdoing it (if anything, the author may have used too light a touch on a serious problem like campus sexual assault). The book felt too long at different times but overall the writing was richly detailed and thoughtfully painted the sometimes messy process of becoming an adult in the real. world, 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4. Readers who enjoyed the author's first book as well as fans of Jonathan Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides and Donna Tartt might enjoy this outing (just plan your time accordingly). My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for allowing me access to the book in exchange for my honest review.
Pella is in her late twenties and has, after a failed marriage and a delayed start into higher education, recently graduated from Westish College. She's engaged to Mike, her boyfriend of many years who is now a coach at Westish where he was once a star athlete. Her life seems to be in a good place as she helps her bestselling author friend Owen plan an over-the-top wedding on Block Island. Meanwhile her friend Irma, a very smart if socially awkward student from a rural and religious town, has concocted a prank with two other friends to raise awareness of campus sexual assault (using two drunk male athletes as a canvas upon which to put a message) which has a wider reaching result than she had anticipated. The prank goes viral, making the news nationally, and causing unexpected fallout for the college and Irma. Owen's wedding becomes the catalyst for chaos in both Pella's and Irma's lives; Pella's engagement to Mike is called off and she ends up in New York trying to sort out what she wants from life, while Irma has to deal with the havoc her prank has wrought on the campus and on her future..
The Brightness is an ambitious (and very long at over 670 pages) character-driven campus novel, a sequel to author Chad Harbach's debut novel, The Art of Fielding, which was released 15 years ago. I had not read the earlier novel, and as a result I was not familiar with Westish College and its denizens which likely affected how much I enjoyed this novel. That said, I found the author's character development extremely strong and sense of place equally accomplished. The narrative takes on friendship, ambition, identity, campus assault, and life on and post campus, dealing warmly with the complex, sometimes comedic world of the college campus. The overall tone is one of affection and Midwestern sensibilities that tackles some heavy issues without overdoing it (if anything, the author may have used too light a touch on a serious problem like campus sexual assault). The book felt too long at different times but overall the writing was richly detailed and thoughtfully painted the sometimes messy process of becoming an adult in the real. world, 3.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 4. Readers who enjoyed the author's first book as well as fans of Jonathan Franzen, Jeffrey Eugenides and Donna Tartt might enjoy this outing (just plan your time accordingly). My thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for allowing me access to the book in exchange for my honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Pella and Irma are best college friends though seven years apart in age and experiences. Pella lives with her longtime boyfriend turned fiancé, Mike, who is an assistant football coach at the small Midwestern school called Westish. A feminist prank played upon some football players authored by Irma, but carried out by two other friends, send the whole campus and internet into a tizzy. The other big event in Pella’s life is the helping to plan the wedding of another former student, now a much-celebrated author whose book was set at the college. Both of these events are major catalysts in
for Pella, Irma, as well as their family and friends.
The prank and the wedding set off a major sea change especially after Pella, the maid of honor, and Irma, a late add in guest, attend the over-the-top festivities. Pella ends up far from home while Irma returns reevaluating all the that she knew, or wanted as she prepares to graduate.
This book is one of those that is a challenging for this reader to rate because while the writing is very good, the characters and their story is a cauldron of angst, depression, wild times, and very miserable people which seems endemic in modern literary fiction. Pella, Irma and several other characters have major emotional baggage from their parents that has sent them adrift in the searching for, but not really finding, a life of contentment. They have little to no spiritual life, constantly seeking to fill the hole in their hearts where love should exist with drugs, alcohol, and for some characters, sex.
Few of theses people are likeable, at best striving for something better, at worst self-centered, maudlin, and just plain sad. Since the writer is male, and the main characters are female, there feels a loss of authenticity when he addresses the rape culture and other women’s experiences. This story is somewhat of an ersatz sequel as several characters were in the author’s first novel, THE ART OF FIELDING, published in 2011.
for Pella, Irma, as well as their family and friends.
The prank and the wedding set off a major sea change especially after Pella, the maid of honor, and Irma, a late add in guest, attend the over-the-top festivities. Pella ends up far from home while Irma returns reevaluating all the that she knew, or wanted as she prepares to graduate.
This book is one of those that is a challenging for this reader to rate because while the writing is very good, the characters and their story is a cauldron of angst, depression, wild times, and very miserable people which seems endemic in modern literary fiction. Pella, Irma and several other characters have major emotional baggage from their parents that has sent them adrift in the searching for, but not really finding, a life of contentment. They have little to no spiritual life, constantly seeking to fill the hole in their hearts where love should exist with drugs, alcohol, and for some characters, sex.
Few of theses people are likeable, at best striving for something better, at worst self-centered, maudlin, and just plain sad. Since the writer is male, and the main characters are female, there feels a loss of authenticity when he addresses the rape culture and other women’s experiences. This story is somewhat of an ersatz sequel as several characters were in the author’s first novel, THE ART OF FIELDING, published in 2011.
October 29, 2026
(Audiobook) Did I notice that the audiobook was 20 hours long when I hit play? Nope. Did I realize that this was a sequel to THE ART OF FIELDING as I was reading all 672 pages of it? Nope. Did I see that Chad Harbach had published a new novel 15 years after his debut and immediately pounce on it when Libro.fm sent me an advanced copy? Yes, yes I did.
I loved THE ART OF FIELDING and recently included it in a Silent Book Club roundup of the most “American” books of the last 250 years. But what I remembered about it—midwestern college, baseball, male friendship—was fuzzy. (In my defense, it’s been 15 years!) So it didn’t register that THE BRIGHTNESS returns to the same Westish College campus four years later with many of the same characters.
This time around, Harbach focuses on female friendship, academia, and rape culture (the timeliness of the Cornell 7 discourse is uncanny). The novel is set in 2015 and evokes a deep sense of nostalgia for the pre-Trump era of feminism when the media landscape included The Hairpin, Jezebel, and Gawker. It made me long for the days before we had ever heard of trad wives and the manosphere and AI psychosis.
Harvard-educated Harbach can’t help himself from flexing his literary chops with references to Edith Wharton and Lily Bart, frequent Shakespeare riffs, and a self-proclaimed desire to write an Anna Karenina–level novel. But the author’s Wisconsin roots ground his work in an affable humanism that is deeply relatable and satisfying.
I would have happily kept listening to another 20 hours. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another 15 years to make it a Westish trilogy.
I loved THE ART OF FIELDING and recently included it in a Silent Book Club roundup of the most “American” books of the last 250 years. But what I remembered about it—midwestern college, baseball, male friendship—was fuzzy. (In my defense, it’s been 15 years!) So it didn’t register that THE BRIGHTNESS returns to the same Westish College campus four years later with many of the same characters.
This time around, Harbach focuses on female friendship, academia, and rape culture (the timeliness of the Cornell 7 discourse is uncanny). The novel is set in 2015 and evokes a deep sense of nostalgia for the pre-Trump era of feminism when the media landscape included The Hairpin, Jezebel, and Gawker. It made me long for the days before we had ever heard of trad wives and the manosphere and AI psychosis.
Harvard-educated Harbach can’t help himself from flexing his literary chops with references to Edith Wharton and Lily Bart, frequent Shakespeare riffs, and a self-proclaimed desire to write an Anna Karenina–level novel. But the author’s Wisconsin roots ground his work in an affable humanism that is deeply relatable and satisfying.
I would have happily kept listening to another 20 hours. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another 15 years to make it a Westish trilogy.
October 30, 2026
Fifteen years is a long time to wait for a new novel from Chad Harbach, but The Brightness is a reminder of just how skilled he is at literary fiction. I loved this book, even if The Art of Fielding remains my favorite of the two. Technically a sequel, The Brightness also stands on its own, so readers don’t need to have read or remember much about the earlier novel to appreciate it.
Harbach has a particular gift for setting. Whether he’s writing about a rural college campus in Wisconsin, a beach wedding on Block Island, or bustling New York City, his locations feel fully realized and integral to the story. He captures the atmosphere of a place in a way that makes it easy to imagine being there.
I also appreciated his handling of the predominantly female cast. He writes these characters with sensitivity and care, giving them the time and space to develop as complicated people. Their changes unfold gradually, and watching them grow over the course of the novel was one of its greatest pleasures.
It is a very long book, and I suspect its length will put off some readers. For me, though, the careful character development and immersive settings made it a deeply satisfying read. Harbach’s talent makes him an author worth waiting for. I just hope the next wait isn’t another fifteen years.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Harbach has a particular gift for setting. Whether he’s writing about a rural college campus in Wisconsin, a beach wedding on Block Island, or bustling New York City, his locations feel fully realized and integral to the story. He captures the atmosphere of a place in a way that makes it easy to imagine being there.
I also appreciated his handling of the predominantly female cast. He writes these characters with sensitivity and care, giving them the time and space to develop as complicated people. Their changes unfold gradually, and watching them grow over the course of the novel was one of its greatest pleasures.
It is a very long book, and I suspect its length will put off some readers. For me, though, the careful character development and immersive settings made it a deeply satisfying read. Harbach’s talent makes him an author worth waiting for. I just hope the next wait isn’t another fifteen years.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
November 5, 2026
pella remains one of my favorite literary characters of all time. she is stunning here, and i get why this took 15 years. i'm also annoyed with how much criticism of this book centers around male authorship because that is fucking addressed, perfectly, in the book, and only a poor reading of it would dismiss that. i'm also fascinated by what this book did to the art of fielding, the meta nods to the plagiarism controversy, the changed names, and henry 😭 god the deconstruction of henry was so fucking perfect and painful. there are like 500 passages about henry in the art of fielding that i'll never forget, and we can add one in this book to that list, of very few mentions. that scene at the wedding with the guy taking his shirt off...man.
i was going to end this by saying i felt for mike, because i loved him so much in the art of fielding. but that's kind of the point, i think.
i've changed this rating like 10 times while writing this review btw. good book.
i was going to end this by saying i felt for mike, because i loved him so much in the art of fielding. but that's kind of the point, i think.
i've changed this rating like 10 times while writing this review btw. good book.
October 28, 2026
Let’s bring back good editing! Chop it down; life is short!
The dialogues here just drag pretty aimlessly:
“Senior year,” said her dad, a kind of open-ended prompt. “Senior year,” Irma agreed.
“How’s the Ram running?”
“Like a dream,” Irma said with affectionate irony. Her old truck rumbled along, demanding minor repairs without ever dying.
“Those hoses did the trick, huh?”
“It sounds good,” Irma said.
Look, I’m not saying we always have to kill someone on the first page, but this is a boring back and forth to start off a story. What are we doing?
And then there’s the grammar:
“The roommate was Dahlia, whom Irma hoped would be enticed by Anderson’s presence, but this was too much to explain.”
This should be who, not whom (read it again). This kind of mistake shouldn’t make it into the final version of a major release. Pay a grammar nerd to read it over! Don’t let AI do your proofreading!
The dialogues here just drag pretty aimlessly:
“Senior year,” said her dad, a kind of open-ended prompt. “Senior year,” Irma agreed.
“How’s the Ram running?”
“Like a dream,” Irma said with affectionate irony. Her old truck rumbled along, demanding minor repairs without ever dying.
“Those hoses did the trick, huh?”
“It sounds good,” Irma said.
Look, I’m not saying we always have to kill someone on the first page, but this is a boring back and forth to start off a story. What are we doing?
And then there’s the grammar:
“The roommate was Dahlia, whom Irma hoped would be enticed by Anderson’s presence, but this was too much to explain.”
This should be who, not whom (read it again). This kind of mistake shouldn’t make it into the final version of a major release. Pay a grammar nerd to read it over! Don’t let AI do your proofreading!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I enjoyed The Brightness, although I wonder if I might have liked it more if fifteen years hadn't elapsed since the publication of The Art of Fielding. The Brightness is a sequel, although I think it works fairly well as a stand-alone novel. Chad Harbach has once again written a novel about people trying to figure out who they are, but this time the uncertainty is less about finding success and more about figuring out what kind of life you actually want.
Pella is at that uncomfortable age when you’re supposed to have your future mapped out, yet suddenly realize that the life you thought you wanted may not be the life you want at all. After a disastrous wedding weekend blows up her carefully arranged plans, she heads to New York, where she tries on different versions of herself: artist, bartender, scholar, lover, potential wife, and discovers that none of them quite fits.
I particularly liked the way Harbach captures the restless, sometimes exhilarating feeling of being in your twenties, when the possibilities seem endless but every decision also feels as though it might close off ten other possibilities. Pella can be frustrating, impulsive, and unsure of herself, but that uncertainty is also what makes her feel so human. The supporting characters are equally interesting, and Harbach is especially good at creating complicated relationships in which people can love each other and still hurt each other.
There’s plenty of energy here, along with some genuinely funny moments and beautifully observed scenes. At times, though, the novel felt a little too sprawling (i.e. too long) for me, and I occasionally found myself wondering where all of it was headed. Still, I appreciated the messiness. Life in your twenties rarely follows a neat narrative arc, and Harbach understands that.
A thoughtful, lively novel about love, ambition, reinvention, and the unnerving realization that having lots of choices doesn’t necessarily make choosing any easier. Thank you to Little, Brown, and Company and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book. It will be published on October 27, 2026.
Pella is at that uncomfortable age when you’re supposed to have your future mapped out, yet suddenly realize that the life you thought you wanted may not be the life you want at all. After a disastrous wedding weekend blows up her carefully arranged plans, she heads to New York, where she tries on different versions of herself: artist, bartender, scholar, lover, potential wife, and discovers that none of them quite fits.
I particularly liked the way Harbach captures the restless, sometimes exhilarating feeling of being in your twenties, when the possibilities seem endless but every decision also feels as though it might close off ten other possibilities. Pella can be frustrating, impulsive, and unsure of herself, but that uncertainty is also what makes her feel so human. The supporting characters are equally interesting, and Harbach is especially good at creating complicated relationships in which people can love each other and still hurt each other.
There’s plenty of energy here, along with some genuinely funny moments and beautifully observed scenes. At times, though, the novel felt a little too sprawling (i.e. too long) for me, and I occasionally found myself wondering where all of it was headed. Still, I appreciated the messiness. Life in your twenties rarely follows a neat narrative arc, and Harbach understands that.
A thoughtful, lively novel about love, ambition, reinvention, and the unnerving realization that having lots of choices doesn’t necessarily make choosing any easier. Thank you to Little, Brown, and Company and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book. It will be published on October 27, 2026.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
*The Brightness* by Chad Harbach is one of those books that feels less like you're simply reading a story and more like you're spending a very long, complicated stretch of time with a group of people whose lives you slowly become invested in.
At the heart of the story are Pella and Irma, two young women trying to figure out who they are and where they belong as they move into very different stages of adulthood. Pella is 27, engaged to Mike, and seemingly on a pretty predictable path until a chaotic wedding weekend changes everything. Meanwhile, Irma is dealing with the fallout from a politically charged campus prank that threatens to alter her future. From there, both women find themselves questioning relationships, ambitions, identities, and the lives they thought they were going to have.
What I enjoyed most was the character development. These characters are complicated, flawed, frustrating, and incredibly human. I didn't always agree with their choices—and there were definitely moments when I wanted to shake some sense into them—but that actually made them feel more real. Their friendships aren't perfect, their relationships aren't simple, and nobody seems to have adulthood completely figured out.
The friendship between Pella and Irma was especially interesting to me. There is so much affection between them, but also jealousy, misunderstanding, resentment, and the inevitable changes that happen when two people start moving in different directions. I liked that the book didn't try to make friendship easy or perfect. Sometimes loving someone doesn't mean you grow in the same direction.
I also really enjoyed the themes of identity, ambition, love, grief, and those terrifying years when your entire future seems wide open. There is something both exciting and heartbreaking about being young enough to believe you can become anything while simultaneously realizing that every choice you make starts closing off other possibilities.
The writing is beautiful and often surprisingly funny. Harbach takes his time with his characters and gives us a tremendous amount of insight into their histories and motivations. Some of the scenes, particularly the wedding weekend, were incredibly memorable and had that wonderfully chaotic feeling of watching several lives collide at once.
My biggest issue was definitely the length. At 672 pages, *The Brightness* is a commitment, and there were times when I felt the story wandered into places that didn't necessarily need quite so much attention. The pacing occasionally slowed down enough that I had to work to get myself back into the story. That said, once I was invested in the characters, I genuinely wanted to know where their lives would take them.
Overall, *The Brightness* is a thoughtful, messy, emotional exploration of friendship and growing into the person you're supposed to become. It doesn't offer easy answers, and I think that's part of what makes it work. Life is rarely a straight line, especially in your twenties, and sometimes figuring yourself out means making mistakes, losing people, starting over, and realizing that the future you planned isn't necessarily the future you need.
A long and sometimes slow read, but one filled with beautifully complicated characters and plenty to think about. ✨📚💛
At the heart of the story are Pella and Irma, two young women trying to figure out who they are and where they belong as they move into very different stages of adulthood. Pella is 27, engaged to Mike, and seemingly on a pretty predictable path until a chaotic wedding weekend changes everything. Meanwhile, Irma is dealing with the fallout from a politically charged campus prank that threatens to alter her future. From there, both women find themselves questioning relationships, ambitions, identities, and the lives they thought they were going to have.
What I enjoyed most was the character development. These characters are complicated, flawed, frustrating, and incredibly human. I didn't always agree with their choices—and there were definitely moments when I wanted to shake some sense into them—but that actually made them feel more real. Their friendships aren't perfect, their relationships aren't simple, and nobody seems to have adulthood completely figured out.
The friendship between Pella and Irma was especially interesting to me. There is so much affection between them, but also jealousy, misunderstanding, resentment, and the inevitable changes that happen when two people start moving in different directions. I liked that the book didn't try to make friendship easy or perfect. Sometimes loving someone doesn't mean you grow in the same direction.
I also really enjoyed the themes of identity, ambition, love, grief, and those terrifying years when your entire future seems wide open. There is something both exciting and heartbreaking about being young enough to believe you can become anything while simultaneously realizing that every choice you make starts closing off other possibilities.
The writing is beautiful and often surprisingly funny. Harbach takes his time with his characters and gives us a tremendous amount of insight into their histories and motivations. Some of the scenes, particularly the wedding weekend, were incredibly memorable and had that wonderfully chaotic feeling of watching several lives collide at once.
My biggest issue was definitely the length. At 672 pages, *The Brightness* is a commitment, and there were times when I felt the story wandered into places that didn't necessarily need quite so much attention. The pacing occasionally slowed down enough that I had to work to get myself back into the story. That said, once I was invested in the characters, I genuinely wanted to know where their lives would take them.
Overall, *The Brightness* is a thoughtful, messy, emotional exploration of friendship and growing into the person you're supposed to become. It doesn't offer easy answers, and I think that's part of what makes it work. Life is rarely a straight line, especially in your twenties, and sometimes figuring yourself out means making mistakes, losing people, starting over, and realizing that the future you planned isn't necessarily the future you need.
A long and sometimes slow read, but one filled with beautifully complicated characters and plenty to think about. ✨📚💛
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