The Brightest Place in the World

Winner of the 2021 Nebraska Book Award for Fiction!

Inspired by true events, The Brightest Place in the World traces the lives of four characters haunted by an industrial disaster. On an ordinary sunny morning in 2012, a series of explosions level a chemical plant on the outskirts of Las Vegas. The shock waves are felt as far away as Fremont Street. Homes and businesses suffer broken windows and caved-in roofs. Hundreds are injured, and eight employees of the plant are unaccounted for, presumed dead.

One of the missing is maintenance technician Andrew Huntley, a husband and father who is an orbital force in the novel as those who loved him grapple with his loss. Andrew's best friend, Russell Martinan anxiety-plagued bartender who calms his nerves with a steady inflow of weedmisses him more than he might a brother. Meanwhile Emma, Russell's wifea blackjack dealer at a downtown casinotries to keep her years-long affair with Andrew hidden. Simon Addison, a manager at the plant who could have saved Andrew's life, is afflicted by daily remorse, combined with a debilitating knowledge of his own cowardice. And then there's Maddie, Andrew's only child, a model high-school student whose response to the tragedy is to experiment with shoplifting and other deviant behavior.

Against the sordid backdrop of Las Vegasand inspired by the PEPCON disaster of May 4, 1988this engaging novel is a story of grief and regret, disloyalty and atonement, infatuation and love.

Dettagli