This Impossible Brightness
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Caroline Hewitt
About this listen
Taking refuge on a remote island, a grieving woman develops unlikely connections with the community and the wild in this haunting novel of hope and perseverance from debut author Jessica Bryant Klagmann.
After the mysterious disappearance of her fiancé, Alma Hughes moves to a remote island in the North Atlantic, where she hopes to weather her grief and nurture her ailing dog. But the strange town of Violette has mysteries as well.
Townsfolk say that the radio tower overlooking their town broadcasts messages through their home appliances, their dreams, even the sea itself. When lightning strikes the tower, illuminating the sky in a brilliant flash, Alma finds herself caught in the unexplainable aftermath of one of Violette’s deadliest storms.
As the sea consumes the island, threatening its very existence, the deaths and lost memories of the recently departed also devastate the community. Alma, with a unique link to the lost, may be the only one who can help them move on. But to do so, she must confront a tragic loss of her own.
On this doomed island haunted by echoes of the departed, Alma searches for meaning in her future—and dares to discover the power of hope among the living.
©2024 Jessica Klagmann. (P)2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“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
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George Orwell’s 1984
- An Audible Original adaptation
- By: George Orwell, Joe White - adaptation
- Narrated by: Andrew Garfield, Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, and others
- Length: 3 hrs and 27 mins
- Original Recording
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It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.
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A Revelation!
- By wotsallthisthen on 04-07-24
By: George Orwell, and others
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The Plight Before Christmas
- By: Kate Stewart
- Narrated by: Joe Arden, Maxine Mitchell
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Clark Griswold was onto something...at least with his annual holiday meltdown. And since the last three weeks of my life have been riddled with humbug—another breakup, a broken toe, an office promotion I deserved and didn’t get—I’m not at all in the mood to celebrate nor have the happ, happ, happiest Christmas EVER.
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Gaslighting and games
- By FMC on 12-22-22
By: Kate Stewart
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He's Gone
- By: Rebecca Collomosse
- Narrated by: Victoria Blunt, Cicely Whitehead, Joe Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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My fiancé brought me tea and scrambled eggs in bed that morning, and we snuggled together, talking about buying our rings, and about our perfect wedding next year. Then we headed into town. He held my hand and gazed at the ring I liked best, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Then a glass of bubbly to celebrate. I felt flushed, excited and ready for the rest of my life with the man I loved. We race to get on the train home. It screams to a halt and I run towards its open doors. Made it. I think he’s right behind me — but when I turn around, he’s gone.
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Disappointing plot
- By TerriSweeta on 12-04-24
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The Answer Is No
- A Short Story
- By: Fredrik Backman, Elizabeth DeNoma - translator
- Narrated by: Stacy Gonzalez
- Length: 1 hr and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
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Narrator doesn’t get Backman’s satire or rhythm
- By joey1603 on 12-01-24
By: Fredrik Backman, and others
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Starship Troopers
- By: Robert A. Heinlein
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 8 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Johnnie Rico never really intended to join up—and definitely not the infantry. But now that he’s in the thick of it, trying to get through combat training harder than anything he could have imagined, he knows everyone in his unit is one bad move away from buying the farm in the interstellar war the Terran Federation is waging against the Arachnids. Because everyone in the Mobile Infantry fights. And if the training doesn’t kill you, the Bugs are more than ready to finish the job.
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The definitive version!
- By Kristopher G. Hesson on 10-03-24
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Dead Med
- By: Freida McFadden
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso, Scott Merriman
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
When Heather McKinley dreamed of becoming a doctor, she imagined curing sick kids and sporting pink stethoscopes. She never anticipated the sleepless nights, grueling exams, and endless labs. And she certainly never knew that her medical school earned the nickname Dead Med thanks to the tragic history of students overdosing on illegal drugs. But Heather would never consider doing anything like that. That is, until her longtime boyfriend dumps her, she finds herself failing anatomy, and her world starts to crumble.
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Hmm
- By Morgan Meaux on 08-22-24
By: Freida McFadden
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great start, disappointing ending
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Catalina de Cerrato is being raised by her widowed father, Don Alonso, in 1551 Guatemala, scarcely thirty years since the Spanish invasion. A ruling member of the oppressive Spanish hierarchy, Don Alonso holds sway over the newly relegated lower class of Indigenous communities. Fiercely independent, Catalina struggles to honor her father and her late mother, a Maya noblewoman to whom Catalina made a vow that only she can keep: preserve the lost sacred text of the Popol Vuh, the treasured and now forbidden history of the K’iche’ people.
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- By Anna Ortiz on 11-25-24
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Excellent narration
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Favorite listen this year!
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Review of ‘The Bird Hotel’.
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What listeners say about This Impossible Brightness
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Pamela Ann Plumer
- 02-03-24
𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
This was a great listen with an agreeable narrator I listened to this during my morning and I enjoyed it!
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8 people found this helpful
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- EBgood
- 03-09-24
Beautifully written and narrated
The author weaves a tale of the inevitability of change and the importance of discerning what is in our power to have an affect on all the changes, large and small, and what is not. She speaks for the planet, the wildlife, the stars, and the hearts of human beings in a way that gently but clearly says," Take of of one another." I also love,love, love the way the story shows the shift in the global awareness that we truly have more than our 5 senses. Can't wait for her next book!
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8 people found this helpful
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- Mary C Bartel
- 08-10-24
Immersive and unexpected
While I put this down once, I picked it up again and I’m really happy I did. The more I read, the more captivated I became with the world building and characters of The Impossible Brightness. As the town around them succumbs to the effects of climate change, a type of irreparable loss, the characters echo this struggle. By playing with magical realism, the reader is drawn into a fascinating and curious exploration or grief, love, friendship and what it means to be understood. Impeccable narrator. Excellent read, I’m still thinking about it days later.
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- Jorge Varão Pinto
- 06-23-24
Nice little sad Sci fi story
It's well written and enjoyable but for some reason it just didn't click with me...
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-05-24
Hard to follow at times…
I simply had trouble engaging in the story. Generally that is not an issue, but I found myself replaying chapters feeling I had missed an important component. I’m glad I completed the story as it has some good philosophical points.
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- Evan K
- 02-12-24
Cinematic and serene!
Sometimes (but not often) a book is so well written, and a narration so perfectly delivered, that listening to the audiobook is like watching a movie. The words come at you like full-fledged scenes with color and light, sound and ambiance. It’s a strange phenomenon, to get so much sense and feeling from your ears, and so rare. But why I love audiobooks so much! From the prologue to the epilogue of this novel, I was transported to this quiet island in the North Atlantic, and hugged tight by this story of solitude. I didn’t want to leave, even as the waters were rising.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Kimberly
- 06-22-24
original, thought-provoking
An interesting study of individuality, mortality and the process of letting go. Such an original presentation, interesting and captivating. The narration only complimented the characters and prose. Entirely delightful; I’ll be looking for more reads from this author, who is new to me.
Thank you for time well spent.
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- Rosemary Friar
- 02-07-24
A Tour de Force
The author’s amazing use of words to convey feelings is nothing short of magic. The text is a rich tapestry of intertwined emotions that seep to the reader’s core and nestle in the psyche. This book resonates in a way that leaves the reader somehow changed for having been a witness.
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6 people found this helpful
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- susan
- 02-15-24
Never Again
I read (and delighted in) the written pages first, and then I listened to the novel's audio a few days later. I'm so glad I did it in this order. They very much complement one another. The writer has given us gripping stories within the story, and compelling characters with complicated, intricate relationships. The sequence of reading and listening, for me, brought to life these stories, as well as the book's beautiful imagery, exquisite language, depth of emotion, and profound feelings of grief tempered by fragile hope. (In the audio version I also loved hearing the "French," spoken in a way I could never have read it!)
There are moments now, big and small, in my daily life that unexpectedly take me to Violette and the "characters" who live there. I will never again see a mushroom "clinging gently" to the earth without thinking of that little girl Alma, infuriated by her fieldtrip classmates who, without another thought, kicked the mushrooms from living to dying for sport.
Never again will I brew a pot of tea without imagining messages emanating from the kettle.
Never again will I nuzzle our big sweet aging dog without seeing Jupiter and wondering with deep sadness when the day and "that thing" will be at hand. And knowing full well that my pain will not be unlike that of Alma, whose love for her furry best friend was so deep she could not bring herself to move on, no matter how much she was told she should.
Never again will I listen to an echo without hearing the reverberations of the Echoes of Violette, unveiling the possibility of a happy ending, no matter how deep the grief....
Well done, Jessica. Encore please!
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22 people found this helpful
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- Maryam
- 06-30-24
The main character's authenticity, as she finds, and slowly creates her self, and her independent life
For a long time, you wondered what story these chronicles of people's lives would add up to.
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