Bright Objects

Written by Ruby Todd

Narrated by Casey Withoos

A young woman grapples with the arrival of a once-in-a-lifetime comet and its tumultuous consequences in a debut novel that blends mystery, astronomy and romance, perfect for fans of Tracey Lien, Emma Cline and Mireille Juchau.

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.

'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

• Language: English
• Publisher: W. F. Howes Ltd
• Release date: Apr 30, 2024
• ISBN: 9781004159840

Ruby Todd

Ruby Todd is a Melbourne-based writer with a PhD in writing and literature. She is the recipient of the 2019 Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest Award for Fiction and the inaugural 2020 Furphy Literary Award, among others. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, Overland, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, Bright Objects, was shortlisted for the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award. She is a 2023 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow.