
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
𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲
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Beautifully written and narrated
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Immersive and unexpected
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Nice little sad Sci fi story
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Hard to follow at times…
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Cinematic and serene!
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Thank you for time well spent.
original, thought-provoking
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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!
Never Again
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The main character's authenticity, as she finds, and slowly creates her self, and her independent life
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Excellent listen!
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