The Illumination

By Kevin Brockmeier

Book Overview

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Seattle Times, The Kansas City Star, and Philadelphia City Paper What if our pain was the most beautiful thing about us? At 8:17 on a Friday night, the Illumination begins. Every wound begins to shine, every bruise to glow and shimmer. And in the aftermath of a fatal car accident, a journal of love notes, written by a husband to his wife, passes into the keeping of Carol Ann Page, and from there through the hands of five other people--a photojournalist, a schoolchild, a missionary, a writer, and a street vendor. As their stories unfold, we come to understand how intricately and brilliantly they are connected, in all their human injury and experience. With the artistry and imagination that have become his trademark, Kevin Brockmeier reveals a world that only he could imagine, casting his gaze on the wounds we bear and the light that radiates from us all.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307387771
• ISBN13: 9780307387776
• Release Date: February 2012
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

One of the best...

I can usually tell within the first 5 pages of a book if I am going to love it, or just like it, or have to work my way thru it. I found this book to be spellbinding. The writing is superb, with touches of genius. It is not a book of short stories, yet it is a series of inter-connected lives all involving a book that passes from person to person. This was one of the best books I have read in several years. I found myself calling my friends and reading passages from it. I cannot recommend this book more highly.