{"product_id":"this-brilliant-darkness-a-book-of-strangers-9781324003205","title":"This Brilliant Darkness: A Book of Strangers","description":"\u003cp\u003eKnown for immersion journalism that is more immersed than most people are willing to go, and for a prose style that is somehow both fierce and soulful, Jeff Sharlet dives deep into the darkness around us and awaiting us.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis work began when his father had a heart attack; two years later, Jeff, still in his forties, had a heart attack of his own. In the grip of writerly self-doubt, Jeff turned to images, taking snapshots and posting them on Instagram, writing short, true stories that bloomed into documentary. During those two years, he spent a lot of time on the road: meeting strangers working night shifts as he drove through the mountains to see his father; exploring the life and death of Charley Keunang, a once-aspiring actor shot by the police on LA's Skid Row; documenting gay pride amidst the violent homophobia of Putin's Russia; passing time with homeless teen addicts in Dublin; and accompanying a lonely woman, whose only friend was a houseplant, on shopping trips.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEarly readers have called this book \"incantatory,\" the voice \"prophetic,\" in \"James Agee's tradition of looking at the reality of American lives.\" Defined by insomnia and late-night driving and the companionship of other darkness-dwellers--night bakers and last-call drinkers, frightened people and frightening people, the homeless, the lost (or merely disoriented), and other people on the margins--\u003cem\u003eThis Brilliant Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e erases the boundaries between author, subject, and reader to ask: how do people live with suffering?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eSharlet, Jeff:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eJeff Sharlet\u003c\/strong\u003e is associate professor of English and creative writing at Dartmouth, and the best-selling author of \u003cem\u003eThe Family\u003c\/em\u003e (made into a Netflix documentary series), \u003cem\u003eThis Brilliant Darkness\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eC Street\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eSweet Heaven When I Die\u003c\/em\u003e. His work has earned numerous awards, including the National Magazine Award and the Outspoken Award.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50504328118546,"sku":"9781324003205","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_3b3a5582-1e49-45ed-9fcc-8296d11ef6e8.jpg?v=1730816786","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/this-brilliant-darkness-a-book-of-strangers-9781324003205","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}