Chad Harbach Returns to Westish College in The Brightness

Fifteen years after The Art of Fielding, Chad Harbach returns to Westish College with The Brightness, a 672-page novel about familiar characters facing new conflicts. It’s a generous, absorbing campus drama that takes sexual politics seriously while still giving readers the pleasure of spending time with a large cast whose lives keep colliding.

A return to Westish, with room for new readers

The novel opens in September 2015, about five years after the events of The Art of Fielding. Westish is again the setting: a small liberal arts college on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. Some characters from the earlier book return, but this is best understood as a follow-up rather than a direct continuation. The first novel’s story reached a satisfying close, and The Brightness gives several new characters important roles in its own plot.

Readers who know The Art of Fielding will have extra context for the returning cast, but a prior reading isn’t necessary to follow this one. And baseball fans should adjust expectations: there’s no baseball here. Mike Schwartz, once a mentor to Henry Skrimshander’s playing career, is now working as a football coach and in Westish’s athletic department. He’s been away from school for nearly five years, yet remains a prominent presence on campus.

Mike is engaged to Pella, daughter of Westish’s former president. She’s bored with her life, and the wedding of her friend Owen—another familiar face from the earlier novel—offers a change of scene. The celebration takes place on a small island off the Rhode Island coast, where a chaotic weekend sets relationships shifting. Back at Westish, a prank by a group of women known as the Witches of Westish forces the college community to confront how it responds to sexual assault.

From there, the story moves among northern Wisconsin, New York City, Evanston, upstate New York and other places. Its characters have to reckon with conflicts they’ve helped set in motion, often through choices they now regret. That outline only hints at the amount of plot Harbach packs into the book; the appeal lies as much in watching these people deal with one another as in finding out what happens next.

A long read that keeps its momentum

At 672 pages, The Brightness may look like a commitment. In practice, its character-driven approach keeps the book moving. Harbach gives readers time to become attached to the cast, then lets their successes, missteps and frustrations build into a lively, sometimes uneasy drama. The length gives the relationships room to develop, and the result feels less like a chore than an invitation to stay with the characters a little longer.

Harbach remains an engaging, accessible writer. His dialogue is less consistent, particularly when he writes in the voice of the campus’s male athletes. Mike’s casual swagger can sound like a caricature of Matthew McConaughey’s character in Dazed and Confused, while some exchanges among football players feel stiff enough to raise the question of whether the awkwardness is deliberate. The reviewer finds those scenes funny, though perhaps not for the reasons Harbach intends. It’s a minor stumble in a book with much more to offer.

Serious questions at the heart of the story

The novel’s treatment of sexual politics is among its most consequential elements. Set in late 2015 and early 2016, before the #MeToo movement of late 2017, it examines the difficult environment women face on college campuses. The reviewer describes Harbach’s approach as sensitive and empowering, and praises the seriousness with which the book handles the subject.

The source review also points to sexual assault and suicide ideation as subjects that readers may want to know about before starting the novel. These aren’t passing details to skim over: the book asks readers to pause, consider their assumptions and think through the positions they hold. That work sits alongside its entertainment. Harbach’s story can address painful issues with gravity and still be a rollicking read, carried along by its characters and their tangled lives.

That balance is the book’s strongest case for readers who might hesitate at its size. It offers both a sustained look at a community under pressure and the pleasures of an expansive ensemble story. The reviewer’s response is plainly enthusiastic: they wish the novel ran another 700 pages, and can see room for a third visit to Westish. The Brightness leaves readers with new questions about these characters—and makes the prospect of returning to them feel welcome, even if the wait is long.

FICTION
The Brightness
By Chad Harbarch
Little Brown and Company
Published October 27, 2026