As Bright As Heaven

Evelyn is one of the four protagonists and first-person narrators. She is 15 when the story opens and has bright golden hair. Evelyn is the most serious, analytical, and practical of the Bright sisters, perhaps a consequence of being the eldest. She is curious and philosophical and abides by the rules. She is also intellectual, loves reading, and is kind.

Her first trip to Philadelphia, to accompany her mother to see the heart specialist, makes a deep impression on Evelyn, as she sees the doctors as people who can provide answers to why people are in pain. Even if healing is impossible, as in the case of her baby brother, Evelyn feels that there is comfort in having answers. Uncle Fred encourages Evelyn’s interest in medicine by sharing his copy of Gray’s Anatomy. The chapter on neurology, Fred’s favorite, inspires Evelyn to pursue psychiatry and look for ways to preserve the health of the mind. As a resident, Evelyn is diligent, reliable, thoughtful, and focused on care for her patients. She never doubts, once she learns that Ursula’s brother, Leo, is the baby that Maggie found, that the right thing to do is be honest with all parties involved and obey the law that gives Cal Novak and his parents the guardianship of Cal’s son.

While young Maggie sees Evelyn as a know-it-all and an enforcer, as the girls mature, Maggie comes to rely on Evelyn’s wise advice. Evelyn is practical and compassionate and values self-awareness; she insists on what is morally right. She tends to take the larger perspective on events and can consider and acknowledge feelings, which is one reason why she recognizes Maggie’s youthful infatuation with Jamie but also understands how Jamie has been emotionally wounded by his experience of war. When Jamie returns, Evelyn is the person Maggie turns to for help understanding her feelings. Evelyn offers the same guidance and support for Ursula. Her wish to do what is right, and to offer what healing she can, leads her to discover the truth and share it, even when it comes at a personal cost.

Her self-awareness and practicality are what allow Evelyn to recognize her own feelings for Conrad Reese. She knows that she is not the type to become infatuated or misled; she understands that what she feels for him is deep enough for a lasting commitment. Her honesty with Conrad and her love for him do not detract from her compassionate wish to give Sybil the best possible quality of life, despite her having dementia. Evelyn’s marriage to Conrad offers a happy ending to her love affair, along with the ability to continue her fulfilling professional work.

Maggie is the second Bright daughter and the third protagonist and first-person narrator of the novel. Maggie is an imaginative girl and falls in the middle between practical Evie and impulsive Willa. Maggie can be tugged by her emotions, but she also takes time to reflect on them. Maggie is curious—a personality trait shared among all the Bright women—and sensitive. She is also compassionate, which is one reason why she is quick to want to help the baby she finds during the flu pandemic.

This compassion and curiosity combined are what move Maggie to want to help her mother in the embalming room. The work becomes a way for Maggie to spend time with her mother and learn from her. As Maggie tells her mother, she’s interested in trying to fix things. Helping grieving families say goodbye to their departed becomes a skill she cultivates; it’s a way to fix what feels broken by death, a loss that Maggie understands well after losing first Henry and then her mother. Maggie is as quick to want to fix things for other people as for herself. This is the reason why she is kind to Charlie Sutcliff and helps him when she sees his interest in reading. This same impulse to be helpful drives her to accompany her mother in delivering food to flu victims and leads her to take the baby she finds untended. Maggie imagines that she has communicated with the boy’s sister, reassuring the other girl that her brother will be all right. However, she also lies about not being able to identify where she found Alex because she is afraid that he will be taken away, and Alex, in the logic of magical thinking, makes up for the loss of her baby brother, Henry. Maggie’s care of him demonstrates the extent of her nurturing personality, to the point where she wants to keep Alex with her when she anticipates marrying Palmer.

Maggie’s character arc and growth are driven by the love she develops for Jamie Sutcliff, which proves lasting. Maggie realizes that she will feel for no one else what she feels for him, a self-awareness that evolves once she understands why he kept all the letters she wrote to him. She understands that it would be an unkindness to marry Palmer when she doesn’t love him and unkind to keep Alex/Leo from his birth family. Maggie learns from her mother that the right choice is not always easy, but the right choice is to do what is best for another. Following this wisdom leads Maggie to happiness at the end when she and Jamie are together and Alex returns to the Brights.

Willa is the youngest of the Bright sisters, the fourth protagonist of the novel, and another first-person narrator. Willa is six when the family moves to Philadelphia. She is a temperamental and self-centered child who grows into a temperamental and self-centered girl. She lies easily, gets angry when she can’t get what she wants, and tends to smash things. Though she is not deliberately cruel to others, this self-centeredness is so intrinsic to her nature that it guides all of Willa’s choices. She does not concern herself about what is best for others, which is the lesson that Pauline tried to impart to her girls. When she reflects in the conclusion on her sisters and their partners, Willa decides, “I’d rather concentrate on my own happiness, thank you” (382).

Willa, too, is hurt by Henry’s death. She is the one who proposes naming the new baby Alex, as Alexander was Henry’s middle name, and she gives Alex Henry’s rocking-horse rattle. Alex believes that this item is his, and this possession helps seal him into the Bright family as a replacement for Henry and their solace for losing Pauline. When Alex is discovered to be Leo Novak and is obliged to go live with his grandparents, Willa confirms that the rattle is his possession. It is a small way that she can keep a connection between him and the Brights.

At 14, Willa is “golden-haired and beautiful, and her voice is angelic” (246). She loves music and is a talented piano player and singer. When her singing leads her to a job performing at the Silver Swan, Willa accepts despite the illegal status of speakeasies and the dangers if she is caught. Fortunately for Willa, the adults at the speakeasy are protective of her and help cultivate her image as Sweet Polly Adler. This persona of innocence and charm, evoking her mother’s name, is a way that Willa can nostalgically connect with her youth and the period when her mother was alive. The guilt over her conviction that she killed her mother by giving her the flu has given Willa the fatalistic attitude that love is fragile and that everything she loves could be taken from her at any time—a belief confirmed by the raid on the Silver Swan and briefly losing Alex. Her new position singing at the Landmark at the end, however, shows that Willa, too, is resilient and looking forward, even while she wishes to have back what she lost.

Alex, later revealed to be Leo, is the infant whom Maggie rescues during the chaos of the flu pandemic. He becomes both a symbol of survival and a source of healing for the Bright family, especially in the wake of Henry’s death. Raised as a Bright, Alex offers each family member a renewed sense of purpose—Maggie in motherhood, Willa in sibling devotion, and Thomas in paternal care. When his true identity as Leo is uncovered, he embodies the novel’s questions about fate, family, and the power of love over biology. The heart-shaped birthmark that identifies him serves as a visual metaphor for the emotional truth of what the heart knows even when the mind does not. In many ways, Alex represents Henry reborn: a chance to love again in the shadow of loss. His story underscores the novel’s exploration of Care as a Human Imperative and reminds the reader that family is built not only by blood but also by presence, memory, and hope.

Thomas is the steady, understated father of the Bright family, a figure of emotional restraint and quiet devotion. After the death of his infant son, Henry, he moves the family to Philadelphia in search of a new beginning, taking over his uncle’s funeral business. Though not a narrator, Thomas provides a model of resilience shaped by duty: His love is expressed through care, labor, and protection. He teaches his daughters to survive loss by carrying on but never truly recovers from losing Pauline. His grief remains embedded in his routines, and his enduring love for his wife is evident in his continued presence for their daughters. Thomas represents a form of masculine caregiving that is practical, faithful, and constant.