His Bright Light

By: Danielle Steel

Narrated by: Traci Godfrey

At once a loving legacy and an unsparing depiction of a devastating illness, Danielle Steel’s tribute to her lost son is a gift of life, hope, healing, and understanding to us all.

“This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold, and a tortured soul. It is the story of an illness, a fight to live, and a race against death.

I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the love, and what I learned in living through it. I want Nick's life to be not only a tender memory for us, but a gift to others. . . . I would like to offer people hope and the realities we lived with. I want to make a difference. My hope is that someone will be able to use what we learned, and save a life with it.”—Danielle Steel

From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother's joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel's powerful, personal story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness. Sharing tender, painful memories and Nick's remarkable journals, Steel brings us a haunting duet between a singular young man and the mother who loved him—and a harrowing portrait of a masked killer called manic depression, which afflicts between two and three million Americans.

Critic reviews

"A powerful and personal story....His bright light is Danielle Steel's legacy and tribute to her son, as well as haunting depiction of manic-depression."—Saturday Evening Post

"Danielle Steel has written a spellbinding account of her son 's struggle with bipolar illness....Valuable insights....We come away with a heightened sensitivity that perhaps only a writer of this distinction could convey, of what it is like to try to cope with a child with a severe psychiatric disorder....This is a book about what we can do—as parents, as physicians, as human beings."—Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

"Reading His Bright Light moved me to tears as the memoir captures so vividly the ferocious nature of mental illness....Sharing [Nick's] story will save lives. His Bright Light will make a difference for countless others."—Laurie Flynn, Executive Director, NAMI (The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill)

"[A] searing portrayal of the loss of her 19-year-old son . . . Ms. Steel's heartfelt homage to her son may very well help others save a life."—Dallas Morning News


The Nick Traina Foundation has been established to benefit mental health, music, child-related causes, and other charitable organizations for assorted causes, and other charitable organization for assorted causes. All of the author's proceeds and agent's fees from this book will go to the foundation, which will also receive direct proceeds from the publisher for all copies sold.

Beautiful story

I had to pick a book for a psychology class and this book was spot on! Not only for the fact Nick suffered from a terrible mental illness, but for the beautiful story of a mother who loved and supported her child until the end. There were some parts of the book where I cried; I couldn’t imagine going through the pain of this mother who at the end showed so much strength not only for Nick, but her family too. Incredible book! 10/10!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Danielle’s love for Nicky

This is a true story! Danielle is really wonderful as a storyteller about her experience at her life with her bipolar son.

LOVE THIS BOOK!

I love this story. I see myself at times when he was going through, it's ruff but I loved everything he did....

A mother’s love!

Heartbreaking and Loving all at same time. A mother’s love and strength and a son’s struggle ! Thanks for sharing Nicky with us!

This is a story believers and non-b need to hear

This story spoke to my mind and heart. I am a manic-depressive. Disease exists.