The blistering story of a young man making his Broadway debut in Henry IV just as his marriage
implodes—a "witty wise and heartfelt novel" ( Washington Post ) about art and love fame and
heartbreak from the acclaimed actor writer director. A bracing meditation on fame and
celebrity and the redemptive healing power of art a portrait of the ravages of
disappointment and divorce a poignant consideration of the rites of fatherhood and manhood a
novel soaked in rage and sex longing and despair and a passionate love letter to the world of
theater A Bright Ray of Darkness showcases Ethan Hawke's gifts as a novelist as never before.
Hawke's narrator is a young man in torment disgusted with himself after the collapse of his
marriage still half hoping for a reconciliation that would allow him to forgive himself and
move on as he clumsily and sometimes hilariously tries to manage the wreckage of his personal
life with whiskey and sex. What saves him is theater: in particular the challenge of
performing the role of Hotspur in a production of Henry IV under the leadership of a brilliant
director helmed by one of the most electrifying—and narcissistic—Falstaff's of all time.
Searing raw and utterly transfixing A Bright Ray of Darkness is a novel about shame and
beauty and faith and the moral power of art.
