The Nimbus - by Robert P Baird (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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"--

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

"Baird is brilliant, and so is his remarkable novel about faith, family, and the life of the mind. Read this wonderful book. You'll be glad to own it."
--Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

"Robert P. Baird has written a novel of remarkable breadth, one that ponders both the big mysteries (God, miracles) and the small ones (petty graduate school advisers). The Nimbus is a revelation, a book that explores our deep longing for something extraordinary in an otherwise ordinary world."
--Nathan Hill, author of Wellness

"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

"A big-hearted novel about the biggest questions--marriage, religion, parenthood, meaning. The Nimbus is comic and profound, a novel that practically glows. Robert P. Baird is a huge talent."
--Elliot Ackerman, author of Waiting for Eden

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.