This Impossible Brightness
A Novel

Quotes

“An original and inherently fascinating novel by an especially gifted author, This Impossible Brightness by Jessica Bryant Klagmann will have a particular attraction for readers with an interest in family life/women's domestic life novels whose deft crafting raise them to an impressive level of literary excellence.” —Midwest Book Review“At once haunting and visionary, Jessica Bryant Klagmann’s This Impossible Brightness asks us to consider ghosts in their many forms—literal ghosts, the ghosts of grief that follow all of us, and the ghost of a present-but-disappearing earth amid climate devastation. In the face of sweeping loss, this novel resists despair by weaving an expansive web of interconnectedness and also of hope. Klagmann’s debut is both wildly imaginative and gorgeously moving.” —Anne Valente, author of Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down“In the eyes of This Impossible Brightness, humans bear a particular mark of distinction, one that’s spiritual or psychological rather than physical. We are the species that tries to change direction in midair; we attempt, impossibly, to take our fall and transform it into an ascent. Jessica Bryant Klagmann’s writing seems motivated by this same desire. Everywhere in her novel’s pages, you sense some force yearning to turn the future into the past—to forestall the autumn of the world, spin it around, and allow it to burst into spring. Through her focus on this effort, she produces a feeling that’s sustained and powerful, a clear-eyed grief leavened by a mad hope.” —Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Ghost Variations