Review: A thriller novel with a theological twist

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The Nimbus By Robert P. Baird Henry Holt and Co. 352p $30If this sounds like science fiction, think again. Baird has written something far stranger: a campus novel that doubles as a theological thriller, a domestic drama that questions the very nature of reality. The writers studied by Luca’s father, Adrian, parcel out Luca’s inexplicable glow into typologies—Zoroastrian khvarenah! But The Nimbus isn’t content to explore faith in the abstract. It is a novel that trusts its readers to sit with uncertainty, to find meaning in the questions rather than rushing toward answers.