Mirko Bonné
Brighter than the Day

fiction

336pp (72,000 words)

• About the Author

>> A striking panorama of our contemporary age by one of Germany’s most accomplished novelists

>> Longlisted for the German Book Award

English sample translation (pdf)

French sample translation (pdf)

Raimund, Moritz and Floriane have known each other since childhood. Growing up in a village in the north, they meet secretly in a wild garden. One day Inger appears, the daughter of an artist whose parents died in a tragic accident. The four of them form a tight-knit group – until both boys fall in love with Inger, who eventually chooses Moritz. Raimund and the ambitious Floriane also become a couple.

Years later, their paths cross again. After a chance encounter with Inger, Raimund realises there’s a void in his life. Things that once seemed certain are shaken to the core, and the past resurfaces, a tangle of lies, repressed emotions and betrayal.
Raimund desperately tries to regain a sense of self and be reconciled with the past. In a furious finale he sets out on a journey with an uncertain outcome, a journey that leads him inexorably towards a painting that has fascinated him all his life.

In his latest novel, Mirko Bonné offers a gripping analysis of contemporary society and of one individual’s search for identity and a sense of belonging. BRIGHTER THAN THE DAY is also an epic love story, bringing the notion of 'elective affinities' into the modern age. It explores quarrels and estrangement, offering a powerful depiction of a man who risks everything to find a new place for himself in the world.

Rights sold

Bulgaria – Atlantis
Estonia – Eesti Raamat

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Reviews

»Bonné's novels deal with the great questions of life, such as fidelity and betrayal, self-realization and failure. (...) Subtly contrived and artfully dramatic.«

Manuela Reichart, Deutschlandradio Kultur



»An excellent novel. (...) So bizarre and intricate, so completely unbelievable, yet so coherent.«
Frank Drieschner, ZEIT ONLINE

»With the flourish of a confident virtuoso, Bonné reveals the background radiation of earthly conditions.«
Hubert Winkels, DIE ZEIT

»Mirko Bonné is a true writer of the heart. (…) Like a painter of light, he creates landscapes of the soul, touching and agitating.«
Oliver Jungen, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Bonné’s language, that so dedicatively and meticulously dissects the inner life of his protagonist, captivates until the end.«
Brigitte

»With tenderness, wit and verve, Mirko Bonné portrays a man who got lost in melancholic darkness and fights his way back into the light«
Brigitte Woman

»A deeply moving book about the ambivalence of love and the abysses of human desire that will be hard to put down. It explores the thin line between possible and impossible love, the eternal balancing act of human emotion.«

Der Tagesspiegel

»How the ‚grey hero’ Merz finds his way back into the light arouses compassin and sympathy in the reader.«
Stern

»A search for meaning in the vast sea of possibilities, a dramatic effort to break free from the routines of a missed life - an impressive book.«
Markus Schwering, Frankfurter Rundschau

»Bonnés novel provides the finely drawn psychogram of a man who becomes painfully aware that the past is never really behind us.«
Peter Henning, Vogue

»Psychology, artistry and criminalistics come together in a breathtaking finale.«

Hannelore Schlaffer, Süddeutsche Zeitung



»Bonné's novels always seem to point to a dark secret. (...) Poetic and poignant!«
Joachim Dicks, Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR Kultur)


»Tender and poetic.«
Gala

»Bonné creates a very dense, concentrated and enthralling atmosphere.«
Birgit Spielmann, Hessischer Rundfunk (hr2)

»Builds up a tremendous inner tension that holds the reader captive from the very first page.«
Ulf Heise, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR)

»Charged with tension!«
Günter Brandorff, ekz

»Mirko Bonné writes concisely and expressively.«
NDR, Kulturjournal

»Brilliantly composed.«
Ute Büsing, Radio Berlin Brandenburg

»A poetically precise and thorough novel.«
Ingrid Mylo, Badische Zeitung

»Bonné constantly offers intertextual plays and references, unobstrusevely, but always at the appropriate time.«
Werner Jung, neues deutschland

»Brilliant. (…) Mirko Bonnés writing is like a play with light.«
Maja Fiedler, SWR 2

»Poetic, socially relevant, enthralling. (…) A crime story is unfolding, and a rousing love story.«
Jürgen Kanold, Südwest Presse

»A touching book on the inconsistencies of love.«
Michael Braun, Rheinpfalz

»An eloquent novel, full of lyrical moments, that sensitively illiuminates the inner life of his protagonist.«
Marco Puschner, Nürnberger Zeitung

»Impressive as the most exquisite impressionist paintings, and as poetic as Bruce Springsteen’s masterpiece Nebraska.«
Gérard Otremba, Sounds & Books

»Mirko Bonné’s masterful art of telling a story turns his novel into a exciting, poetically written reading pleasure.«
Augsburger Allgemeine

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