Home
The Illumination
Paperback, 257 pages, Random House Inc, List Price: $15 | purchase
Other editions available for purchase:
Book Summary
A journal of private love notes written by a husband to his wife in the wake of a fatal car accident passes through the hands of a hospital patient and five other suffering people whose respective experiences connect them to each other in poignant and complex ways. By the author of The Brief History of the Dead.
Genres:
NPR stories about The Illumination
New In Paperback
Big Questions: Life In 2100, Hawking On God, And Larsson's Last?
The Illumination is an unnerving spiritual fantasy about how we humans would (or would not) respond if we could see each other's wounds — physical and emotional — glowing through our bodies. It's structured as a series of linked stories, in which characters hand off to each other a dead woman's deeply affecting collection of love letters. The Illumination glows with the awareness of its characters' sufferings and the bright light of... more
—Charlotte Abbott
Best Books Of 2011
Year-End Fiction Wrap-Up: The 10 Best Novels Of 2011
Kevin Brockmeier is no fiction novice, although, until this year's publication of his novel The Illumination, he's gotten more critical attention for his short stories than his longer works. The Illumination is an unnerving spiritual fantasy about how we humans would (or would not) respond if we could actually see each other's wounds — physical and emotional — glowing through our bodies. Structured as a series of linked stories in which characters hand off a dead woman's... more
Comments
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and terms of use. See also the Community FAQ.
NPR reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the e-mails and letters that we receive. We may edit them for clarity or brevity and identify authors by name and location. For additional information, please consult our Terms of Use.