"Is this a campus comedy? A novel of ideas? A medical mystery? A spiritual quest narrative? Yes, sure. All of it. And a lot more, packed into less than 300 pages...it’s alive...vivid...heartfelt." —AO Scott, The New York Times

“The Radiance is a towering accomplishment. Ayad Akhtar’s latest novel comes out tomorrow and is a head-spinning, fluid, and deft exploration of the self. Some books have the quality of stickiness—you finish them and they lodge in your head and grow and grow and suddenly you’re up in the middle of the night days or weeks later thinking about them. This is one of those rare feats of writing.” —Theo Baker, How to Rule the World

“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

“The Radiance is a fantastic surprise, a novel made of oppositions: almost painfully intimate, culturally wide-angled, vulnerable, shrewd, compassionate and ruthless, tragic and well, radiant. Bordering at times on the ineffable, it is a unique and extraordinary reading experience." —Mary Gaitskill, author of The Devil's Treasure

“The Radiance is, simply put, a work of genius. Through unforgettable characters Akhtar explores the nature of memory and of the soul, while the unfolding tale builds tension and anticipation like a whodunit. The Radiance is hard to put down and so original it will linger with me for a long time." —Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water 

"Electric and unforgettable: Only Akhtar could navigate territory this fraught—power, obsession, violation, and desire—and emerge with a book this urgent and alive." —Tara Westover, New York Times bestselling author of Educated

"A campus novel like no other, profound and beautiful, whose narrator weathers today's chaos while circling the ultimate questions—and somehow fun as hell to read. This brilliant book left me awestruck." —Phil Klay, National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment

"A page-turning drama." —The New York Times 

“Form-bending.” —The New Yorker

“Fascinating…beguiling...vivid…tenderly renders the beauty and ennui of being unsure of one’s own psyche and soma.” —Zain Khalid, New York Magazine

“At once a self-searching, metaphysical monologue and a page-turning drama.”—The New York Times, “8 New Books We Love This Week”

“Brilliant…forces us to stop trying to outrun our demons, to look closely at the world around us, and to decide how we want to live in it.”—Ben Rhodes

“Cracks the aperture open wide—about as wide as can be—to take on nothing less than the most timeless and fundamental questions of existence, of how to be in the world…Marked by an intoxicating richness of language…somehow both dreamlike and riveting…an engrossing campus novel, braided with a tight plot—a whodunit—and set in a world riven by contemporary cultural, political, and social forces that are familiar to all of us. The book is briskly plotted and deeply absorbing, and at the same time thought-provoking and suffused with ideas of the oldest and deepest order.” —John Kenney, Esquire

“As beautiful and elegiac as its cover art…also a tense literary thriller and an impassioned, philosophical wake-up call.” —Adam Morgan, Esquire

“Extraordinary…searching and alive.” —Marion Winik, People Magazine

“Powerful…thought-provoking…a profound reading experience.” —Heller McAlpin, NPR.org

“Beguiling and mysterious.”—Indira Lakshmanan, NPR’s Here and Now

“Compelling…vivid and provocative.” —David Ulin, Los Angeles Times

“One of the most purely entertaining and fascinating novels I’ve read in ages. Akhtar plays with form and wrestles with big ideas in a way that somehow avoids the pretension that so often accompanies such experiments. And his engagement with other texts and thinkers, from Freud to Buber to Leonard Cohen, is always generous and even generative….Above all, the book is vivid, often funny, and genuinely affecting. The story is mysterious, even puzzling, but it’s not a puzzle that Akhtar is forcing us to solve. Rather, this is a book that tickles the mind and, in its best moments, soothes the soul.” —Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

“Transcendent…. radiating with intelligence and sensuality…profound.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

  “Enlightening…readers will be enthralled…bound to inspire plenty of conversation and musing.” —BookPage

"A moving story about redemption, resilience and second chances that will keep readers turning pages late into the night." —Woman's World

“An engrossing combo of campus novel and whodunit that thoughtfully parses contemporary society by exploring the evolution — and devolution — of our politics, education systems, and cultural literacy.” —Cory Oldweiler, Boston Globe “40 best new books this fall”

"Akhtar is just so clearly brilliant.…[THE RADIANCE is] a real standout...pre-order it."
—Lauren Jackson, NYT Believing

“Akhtar’s writing manages the feat of being as searching as it is precise.”
—Jasmine Vojdani, Vulture

"Extraordinary...raises fascinating questions about trauma, campus politics, polarization, friendship...[and] deep spiritual questions." —Dr Vivek Murthy

“[Akhtar] blew my mind.” —Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“This is a writer in love with ideas…and The Radiance is full to bursting with them….Akhtar has written a stunning novel of ideas that is simultaneously a pure delight to read.”
—Lorraine Glennon, Columbia Magazine

“Dazzling.” —Sooyoung Moon, BOMB

"Astonishing...blew me away....Akhtar charges right into the dark, mysterious continent of the soul….One of the most ambitious attempts I have read at putting words to the inner life." —Lauren Jackson, New York Times Believing newsletter