Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and playwright Ayad Akhtar upends the trope of the Great American Novel in The Radiance, shining a reflection on today’s America, the fractures within, and the promise that remains in its pieces.
Centered on a writer recovering from a hit and run that leaves him torn and caught between revelation and madness, The Radiance is a novel of campus entanglement, academia and cultural warfare; of Christianity and Islam; and the play between the physical and the metaphysical.
Join ALOUD and Skylight Books for a deeper exploration of this one-of-a-kind work: a portrait not only of the present moment, but the landscape around us and our place within it.
“Simply put, a work of genius.” —Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water
“I cannot remember the last time a book made me feel and think so much. The Radiance is as thrilling as it is illuminating. It quickened my pulse, activated my senses, awakened my mind, and stirred my soul. A wondrous, transcendent reading experience.”
—Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown
—Charles Yu, National Book Award-winning author of Interior Chinatown
Featured Author:
Ayad Akhtar
Ayad Akhtar is a novelist and playwright. His work has been published and performed in over two dozen languages. He is the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Edith Wharton Citation of Merit for Fiction, and an award in literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among other honors. Akhtar is the author of the novels American Dervish, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, and Homeland Elegies, named one of 10 Best Books of 2020 by The New York Times. He has also authored the plays McNeal, Junk, Disgraced, The Who & The What, and The Invisible Hand. Akhtar was named the New York State Author in 2021.
