The Sky Below - by Stacey D'Erasmo (Paperback)

About the Book

From a rising literary star "in the tradition of Carol Shields and A. S. Byatt" comes this luminous story of a contemporary man's metamorphosis.
Andrea Barrett and Michael Cunningham have lauded Stacey D'Erasmo for the beauty of her language and her ability to create worlds that leave a lasting impression. In her new novel, D'Erasmo 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 him--to a point. But after a brush with his own mortality, Gabriel must flee to Mexico in order to put himself back together. By novel's end, we know all of Gabriel's ratty little secrets, but by dint of D'Erasmo's spectacular writing, we exult in the story of an imperfect man who--tested by a world that is often too much for him--rises to meet the challenge.

Book Synopsis

From a rising literary star "in the tradition of Carol Shields and A. S. Byatt" comes this luminous story of a contemporary man's metamorphosis.
Andrea Barrett and Michael Cunningham have lauded Stacey D'Erasmo for the beauty of her language and her ability to create worlds that leave a lasting impression. In her new novel, D'Erasmo 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 him--to a point. But after a brush with his own mortality, Gabriel must flee to Mexico in order to put himself back together. By novel's end, we know all of Gabriel's ratty little secrets, but by dint of D'Erasmo's spectacular writing, we exult in the story of an imperfect man who--tested by a world that is often too much for him--rises to meet the challenge.

Review Quotes

"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
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