The Brightness

This is a campus novel that eclipses Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with the best wedding scene I have EVER experienced, seen, or read about in all my days. Big books are back, baby, and let us not resist. It’s time to Nestea plunge into the best writing that life has to offer, okay? If you read The Art of Fielding, Harbach’s previous book, this will not take much convincing. There are Easter eggs, but it’s been so long since I read the last book that I didn’t remember any of them. No matter; this is a stand-alone masterpiece dancing with themes of art, friendship, love, and grief, and dance it does to the very last page. This fall, it’s a toss-up for me between American Hagwon and The Brightness, and both have earned their spots in my top ten books of all time.

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