BAD WORDS is a sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us.

BAD WORDS is a sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us.

A sharp and deeply felt debut about art, ambition, and the connections that both inspire and undo us.

Parker Navarro’s debut novel was meant to define his career --- until critic Selina Chan’s blistering review made it the flop of the decade. Four years later, his new book is his shot at redemption; for Selina, reviewing him again is a professional risk she can’t refuse. When her second takedown ignites a viral feud, both their fortunes shift overnight. But as the literary world feeds on their public sparring, a quieter dialogue begins --- one that challenges everything they thought they knew about success, sincerity and each other.

Both incisive and tender, BAD WORDS lays bare the costs of creation --- the pull between ambition and integrity, the vulnerability of being seen, and the unexpected closeness that can grow in the space between critique and care.

From the bestselling author of the 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.

From the bestselling author of the 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.

From the bestselling author of the 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 her longtime boyfriend, Mike; 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 20s 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 deep-seeing writers of our time.