Bright Objects

Best Books of 2024 - Publisher's Weekly

Best Thrillers of 2024 - The New York Times

Best Books of 2024 - The New Yorker

"There's a soothing, near-mystical quality to the book's language, a sense of being borne along on unseen currents... What is on the page holds up a mirror to what is in the sky - luminous, unusual, unexpected... Todd has a brilliant trick up her sleeve [...] - a feint that brings Bright Objects to a remarkable conclusion as unexpected as it is poignant, and more original and human than any conventional cult story." The New York Times

"Engaging and wise . . . darkly humorous and witty. That this is Todd's first book bodes well for Australian literature." Australian Book Review

"An intoxicating debut... a lyrical and inventive literary mystery from an author whom readers will hope returns far sooner than any visiting comet." Publisher's Weekly starred review

January 1997: In the small town of Jericho, New South Wales, Sylvia Knight is losing hope that the person who killed her husband will ever face justice. Since the night of the hit-and-run, her world has been shrouded in hazy darkness—until she meets Theo St John, the discoverer of a rare comet soon to be visible above Jericho.

As the comet begins to brighten, visitors flock like pilgrims into town. Supermarkets run out of canned goods; campgrounds fill to capacity. And more and more people are drawn into the orbit of Joseph Evans, an enigmatic local who believes the comet's arrival is nothing short of a divine message. But Sylvia will soon realise that she isn't the only one haunted by the past. While everyone else is looking to the night sky for answers, her quest to uncover her husband's killer will unearth long-held secrets with far-reaching consequences.

A novel about the search for meaning in a bewildering world, the loyalty of love, and the dangerous lengths people go to in pursuit of the truth, Bright Objects is a luminous, masterfully crafted literary thriller.

Praise for Bright Objects:

A New York Times Editors' Choice Pick

"[A] smart, propulsively readable debut novel about a brilliant comet, a grieving widow, a troubled romance and a burgeoning cult... [Todd's] prose is elegant but accessible, her narrative embraces both mystery and quick plot pivots, and her protagonist, though flawed, remains sympathetic. And Todd's grip only tightens as the story turns downright chilling." The Los Angeles Times

"A little bit thriller, a little bit mystery, the novel's genre elements are commendably propulsive . . . Todd's confidence and talents augur a bright future." The Washington Post

"Gorgeously written . . . the prose burns bright." New York Times Book Review

"A literary mystery of consummate elegance and gravity. Bright Objects traces a graceful orbit around the phenomena of human grief and love." Jessica Au, author of Cold Enough for Snow

Bright Objects is a riveting literary thriller of obsession, vengeance and astronomy, but its most poignant gift may be its depiction of trying to make sense of life after tragedy." Bookpage

"The X-Files meets Nick Cave's Ghosteen—science, faith, and human folly collide in this celestial melodrama." Laura Elizabeth Woollett, author of The Newcomer and Beautiful Revolutionary

"Gripping, thrilling. An electric story of small towns, big secrets and the last great comet of the millennium." Felicity McLean, author of The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone

"A novel written with immense grace, beauty, and depth, Bright Objects plumbs the farthest reaches of one widow's grief, ultimately revealing the brilliance of our humanity in the face of immense loss—the will to fight for what's right, the will to hope, and most importantly, the will to love again. A surprising, thrilling, and seductively dangerous comet of a book." Chelsea Bieker, author of Godshot and Madwoman

"Bright Objects is the story of a woman consumed by an unquellable obsession, reduced by solitude and incompleteness, caught in an unconscious embattled conspiracy of her own making. Ruby Todd writes of the strain of fearful events and discoveries, and the fatal inevitability of a sense of guilt when someone close to one is killed, all the while revealing to us the hidden realities that lie in wait for us." Susanna Moore, author of In the Cut