Synopses & Reviews
From a rising literary star in the tradition of Carol Shields and A. S. Byatt” comes this luminous story of a contemporary mans metamorphosis.
Andrea Barrett and Michael Cunningham have lauded Stacey DErasmo for the beauty of her language and her ability to create worlds that leave a lasting impression. In her new novel, DErasmo reaches back to Ovid for inspiration in this tale of how the mythic animates our everyday lives. At thirty-seven, Gabriel Collins works halfheartedly as an obituary writer at a fading newspaper in lower Manhattan, which, since 9/11, feels like a city of the dead. This once dreamy and appealing boy has turned from a rebellious adolescent to an adult who trades in petty crimes.His wealthy, older boyfriend is indulgent of himto a point. But after a brush with his own mortality, Gabriel must flee to Mexico in order to put himself back together. By novels end, we know all of Gabriels ratty little secrets, but by dint of DErasmos spectacular writing, we exult in the story of an imperfect man whotested by a world that is often too much for himrises to meet the challenge.
Review
Not about dissolution but redemption -- a revolutionary concept...The Sky Below could be [D'Erasmo's] breakthrough, a book that moves back and forth between the real world and the elaborate layers of its characters' inner life.
Review
A beautifully written compilation of the small, strange specificities that make us each uniquely human...D'Erasmo's fluidity of writing style amplifies credibility and cohesiveness. There's no question that she can write, and that is ultimately what lets "The Sky Below" do as much as it does
Review
"In her conceptually brilliant, imaginative, brimming and suspenseful novel, her evocations of place are ravishing; her characters are at once richly human and magical, and their confounding predicaments are both commonplace and cosmic." --
Los Angeles Times
" ...studded throughout are ringingly memorable lines, ones that make you see, hear, feel." --Boston Globe
"A beautifully written compilation of the small, strange specificities that make us each uniquely human." --Margot Kaminski, San Francisco Chronicle
"D’Erasmo’s most complex and accomplished character to date...Gabriel’s voice is irresistible." --New York Times Book Review (cover review)
"Intricately imagined and economically told, D'Erasmo's riddling third novel made me want to start over as soon as I reached the last page." --Bloomberg News
"THE SKY BELOW gathers narrative force as Gabe's tale becomes stranger, and as the cruel mingles with the tender in a way that startles and abrades. Cather, I think, would have been shocked and intrigued by this accomplished book." -- The Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
"D'Erasmo writes beautifully, her sentences urgent, whispery, holding their breath as Gabe does, waiting for magic." --The Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)
"Part magical realism and part acid trip, The Sky Below is the stuff that dreams are made of." --Zink Magazine
"Rich in detail, with expertly spun sentences, this is a novel for connoisseurs of words." --Elle
"After two earlier, likable efforts, D'Erasmo moves to the top of her craft with THE SKY BELOW --She is an expert at listening to human nature." --Town & Country
"Stacey D'Erasmo has made a name for herself as a serious prose artist who describes tilted people with a level gaze." -- Newsday
"Gabe’s story is both plausible and fantastic; even when reality is stretched thread-thin, it’s engaging, thanks to Stacey D’Erasmo’s prose, which manages to be both elegant and economical." -- New York Observer
"Hard-nosed but lyrical, unsentimental but moving, mythical but modern, The Sky Below is a precisely calibrated balancing act. It tells the story of a man who must stop living in a fantasy world, yet it never loses touch with the value of art and magic." -- Time Out New York
"…could be her breakthrough, a book that moves back and forth between the real world and the elaborate layers of its characters' inner life." -- Los Angeles Times
"...you can feel D’Erasmo’s maturity and intelligence in this textured and vivid portrait of contemporary life." -- The Advocate
"...full of brilliant, uncanny elements that intersect in ways both puzzling and true." --Bookforum
Synopsis
DErasmo moves to the top of her craft with
The Sky Below,” said
Town and Country, and many others have joined the chorus of critical acclaim for her newest novel, in part inspired by Ovid, which illuminates the myths that underlie our everyday lives.
At thirty-seven, Gabriel Collins works halfheartedly as an obituary writer at a fading newspaper in lower Manhattan, which, since 9/11, feels like a city of the dead. This once dreamy and appealing boy has turned from a rebellious adolescent to an adult who trades in petty crimes. His wealthy, older boyfriend is indulgent of himto a point. But after a brush with his own mortality, Gabriel must flee to Mexico in order to put himself back together. By the novels end, we know all of Gabriels ratty little secrets, but by dint of DErasmos spectacular writing, we exult in the story of an imperfect man whotested by a world that is often too much for himrises to meet the challenge.
About the Author
STACEY DERASMO is the author of the novels Tea, A Seahorse Year, and The Sky Below, and the nonfiction book The Art of Intimacy: The Space Between. She is a former Stegner Fellow, the recipient of a 2009 Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction, and the winner of an Outstanding Mid-Career Novelist Prize from the Lambda Literary Foundation. Her essays, features, and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Review, Bookforum, The New England Review, and Ploughshares, among other publications. She is an assistant professor of writing at Columbia University.