The Bright Years
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4.2 • 41 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A National Bestseller
One family. Four generations. A secret son. A devastating addiction. A Texas family is met with losses and surprises of inheritance, but they’re unable to shake the pull back toward each other in this family saga perfect for readers of Mary Beth Keane and Claire Lombardo.
“Outstanding...through Damoff’s beautiful, at times almost poetic narrative, we see hope through the darkness, and how love—and forgiveness—can make us whole.” —Elle
Ryan and Lillian Bright are deeply in love, recently married, and now parents to a baby girl, Georgette. But Lillian has a son she hasn’t told Ryan about, and Ryan has an alcohol addiction he hasn’t told Lillian about, so Georgette comes of age watching their marriage rise and fall.
When a shocking blow scatters their fragile trio, Georgette tries to distance herself from reminders of her parents. Years later, Lillian’s son comes searching for his birth family, so Georgette must return to her roots, unearth her family’s history, and decide whether she can open up to love for them—or herself—while there’s still time.
Told from three intimate points of view, The Bright Years is a tender, true-to-life, debut that explores the impact of each generation in a family torn apart by tragedy but, over time, restored by the power of grace and love.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Sarah Damoff’s sprawling novel shows us that sometimes it’s tough to tell the difference between what holds a family together and what tears it apart. The Bright Years is an unfolding saga that starts in the 1950s and spans the next six decades in the lives of a troubled Texas family. We first meet Ryan as the child of a doomed marriage and follow him into adulthood as he marries Lillian and their daughter Jet is born. We’ve already uncovered the skeletons Jet’s parents both kept hidden away by the time she grows up to deal with a whole new set of family issues. But as the multigenerational drama swirls, Damoff keeps bringing back some key themes, like guilt, faith, secrecy, addiction, and, most importantly, love. Damoff deftly guides us through a tale as big as Texas itself by focusing on what defines her characters and making us care about them. And, in her understated way, she paints such a vivid atmosphere across all the years that it’s tough not to imagine her story as a TV miniseries in the making. The Bright Years illuminates the razor-thin line between sabotaging and salvaging a family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Social worker Damoff's heartfelt debut focuses on the impact of alcohol addiction on a family over four generations. In 1979 Fort Worth, Tex., 20-something bank teller Lillian Wright meets artist Ryan Brighton. Ryan proposes after a three-year courtship, during which Lillian learns little about his family, and she accepts. Eventually, Ryan reveals that his alcoholic father was physically abusive, but Lillian never imagines Ryan might follow in his footsteps, even as his drinking worsens. After a crushing miscarriage, Lillian gives birth to their daughter, Georgette, and reveals to Ryan that before they met, she had a son and gave him up for adoption. In chapters from Lillian's and Georgette's alternating points of view, Lillian struggles to accept that no matter how many chances she gives her husband, he won't choose family over liquor, while Georgette learns her father can't be counted on. Though Ryan tries sporadically throughout his daughter's young life to be there for her, Georgette remains ambivalent toward him after she grows up. Late in the novel, the reader hears the story from Ryan's point of view in letters to his granddaughter, a delayed attempt at character development that feels a bit too sentimental. Still, the author elicits empathy for all the ravaged characters. This family drama rings true.
