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About this item
Highlights
- A brilliant debut novel about a child whose literal enlightenment sets the stage for an exuberant tragicomedy of marriage, religion, and parenthood.
- About the Author: Robert P. Baird grew up in northern California, studied mechanical engineering and human biology at Stanford, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School.
- 352 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Family Life
Description
Book Synopsis
A brilliant debut novel about a child whose literal enlightenment sets the stage for an exuberant tragicomedy of marriage, religion, and parenthood.
On an otherwise ordinary fall day on a university campus in Chicago, the toddler son of an ambitious divinity school professor named Adrian Bennett mysteriously starts to glow. The nimbus, as the strange, soft light comes to be known, offers no clues to its origin and frustrates every attempt at rational explanation. Though the nimbus appears only intermittently, and not to everyone, the otherworldly glow quickly upends the lives of all those who encounter it, including Paul Harkin, Adrian's broke and feckless graduate student, who likes being a graduate student a little too much for his own good; Renata Bennett, Adrian's omnicompetent wife, who can't see her son glowing even though the nimbus is turning her life upside down; and Warren Kayita, a down-on-his-luck librarian and aging divinity school alumnus on the run from a violent criminal. As news about the nimbus spreads around the university and beyond, Adrian, Paul, Renata, and Warren are set on a collision course that will threaten their lives and put their deepest convictions to the test. At once a rollicking intellectual satire, a searing portrait of a family in crisis, and a thrilling metaphysical page-turner, The Nimbus offers a comic and profound examination of the persistence of spiritual belief in a secular age and humanity's timeless search for meaning.Review Quotes
"I think that there are miracles in the world, but realistic novels don't usually tackle them. Baird's intelligence, compassion and humor illuminate this astonishingly original debut, which somehow manages to ask hard questions about how to live while also being enormously fun to read."
--Nell Freudenberger, author of The Limits
--Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
About the Author
Robert P. Baird grew up in northern California, studied mechanical engineering and human biology at Stanford, and earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. He has worked as an editor at The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The Paris Review, and Esquire, and has written about poetry, politics, pandemics, treasure hunts, and wildfires for a variety of publications. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and children.Dimensions (Overall): 9.25 Inches (H) x 6.12 Inches (W) x 1.0 Inches (D)
Weight: 1.0 Pounds
Suggested Age: 22 Years and Up
Sub-Genre: Family Life
Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres
Number of Pages: 352
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Theme: General
Format: Hardcover
Author: Robert P Baird
Language: English
Street Date: June 10, 2025
TCIN: 93213199
UPC: 9781250392657
Item Number (DPCI): 247-47-2279
Origin: Made in the USA or Imported
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Shipping details
Estimated ship dimensions: 1 inches length x 6.12 inches width x 9.25 inches height
Estimated ship weight: 1 pounds
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