Chad Harbach presents 'The Brightness: A Novel'

Third Place Books is thrilled to welcome Chad Harbach—founding n+1 editor and author of The Art of Fielding—for the release of his new novel, . Energetic, funny, and deeply human, this much-anticipated follow-up confirms Chad Harbach as one of the most accomplished and deep-seeing writers of our time.

“Fifteen years after popping one into the bleachers with his best-selling debut, Harbach returns with a sophomore effort that finds two Midwestern best friends reckoning with the messy realities of young adulthood.”—New York Times

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From the bestselling author of literary sensation The Art of Fielding comes an urgent, deeply felt story of friendship, art, love, and grief, following two young women on the brink of irrevocable change.

Parties and weddings, messy hookups and marred friendships, art and love and grief—

The Brightness follows the electric, chaotic, everything-can-happen lives of Pella and her best friend, Irma, as they fumble their way out of sleepy, Midwestern Westish College and into a larger world that will upend their connection and everything they thought they understood about their own place within it.

At 27, Pella’s life looks settled: she’s a recent college grad, 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 spiraling toward an unplanned future in New York City. Meanwhile, back at Westish College, 21-year-old Irma’s involvement with a politically charged prank—one that has roiled both the campus and the world beyond—threatens to derail her brilliant future. As Irma and Pella cycle through possibilities and identities, both navigate the heights and depths of passion and ambition, and the incalculable wages of love and loss.

In stunning scenes and spectacular characters—each drawn with an almost superhuman vividness and humanity—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.

Chad Harbach is the author of the novels The Brightness and The Art of Fielding, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is a founding editor of n+1 and the editor of the essay collection MFA vs. NYC. He lives in northern California with his son and dog.

Founded in 1998 in Lake Forest Park, Washington, Third Place Books is dedicated to the creation of a community around books and the ideas inside them. With locations in Lake Forest Park and Seattle's Ravenna and Seward Park neighborhoods, Third Place Books is proud to serve the entire Seattle metro area. Learn more about their event series at thirdplacebooks.com/events