Night Burns Bright

In this coming-of-age thriller, a twelve-year-old boy’s spark of courage to question the harmonious wooded commune he calls home may burn down more than just his own illusions.Lucien has everything he needs: a loving mama, a library full of books, and House of Earth, a private school nestled safely in the woods of upstate New York. It’s where Lucien is taught the importance of living in harmony with nature and building a peaceful and sustainable future. But when his youthful curiosity draws him into town and to Gabrielle, a public-school student living a life wholly different from his own, Lucien’s inquisitiveness about life beyond the commune and questions regarding the events of 9/11 threaten to unbalance everything he thought he knew.Slowly, things begin to change at House of Earth. The outside world is off limits. Security measures tighten. New rules are put in place, and anyone who violates them is asked to leave and never spoken of again.As forbidden questions pile up, Lucien’s willingness to obey weakens. Continuing to meet Gabrielle in secret only reinforces his gnawing fear that something about his world is terribly wrong. Unable to remain silent any longer, Lucien will soon discover that looking for answers at House of Earth may be the most dangerous rule he can break.

“An Earth-loving collective turns sinister. Though Barkan never uses the word cult, House of Earth is chillingly evocative of many, and as the novel takes its darker turns, the end is both shocking and inevitable.” —Kirkus Reviews “With this haunting tale of innocence forever lost, Ross Barkan deftly explores how well-intentioned ideals, when taken to extremes, can lead to monstrous outcomes.” —Pitchaya Sudbanthad, author of Bangkok Wakes to Rain “The Night Burns Bright is mysterious and fascinating, a story that’s always told with the utmost urgency but also intriguingly eluding any sort of easy reach or classification. This is the sort of ambition all books should have.” —Will Leitch, author of How Lucky “Captivating from the very first page, The Night Burns Bright is a consummate thriller from the pen of a philosopher-poet. Barkan has done something wonderful, subtle, and brilliant here: in the character of Lucien—a young boy whose subjectivity is cast in the fires of 9/11—we find a contemporary Virgil, a trusted guide to the sweep of time, ruin, and the small beauties that have defined the early 21st century. Rarely has a character been such a fully-fleshed out, heartfelt, addictively readable historian of our times.” —Jordy Rosenberg, author of Confessions of a Fox

Ross Barkan is a novelist and journalist from New York City. He has published two previous books, Demolition Night and The Prince, and his journalism and essays have appeared in a wide variety of outlets, including the New York Times, the Nation, the Guardian, and the New Yorker.