The Bright Years

Sarah Damoff, the author of The Bright Years, is a social worker from Texas. The Bright Years is her first fictional work and draws heavily from her own experiences in social work. Her work inspired this novel by exposing her to the complicated and often painful experience of children growing up to understand that their parents are people, too: “[W]orking with families so intimately, I’ve become very interested in, from both sides, that slow discovery of who parents are as people” (Asch, Sarah. “New Novel ‘The Bright Years’ by Sarah Damoff Explores Family Challenges, Redemption.” Texas Standard, 24 Apr. 2025). Damoff’s work with families allows her to see the intricacies of familial relationships, particularly how they change over time. This awareness is reflected in many of the characters in her novel, though most specifically in Jet. As Jet grows older, she not only discovers that her mother had a child before her, changing her perception of Lillian, but also begins to empathize with her father Ryan, as she faces difficult decisions similar to those he once faced.

Despite the difficult and emotional subject matter of the novel, Damoff seeks to instill it with a sense of hope, as the characters look toward the future and illustrate the benefits of forgiveness and family ties.