The Sky Below

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 & Michael Cunningham have lauded Stacey D’Erasmo for the beauty of her language & her ability to create worlds that leave a lasting impression. In The Sky Below, 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 & 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, & 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.  

A luminous novel crafted in meticulous detail with shimmering language, D’Erasmo’s 3rd book tells the story of Gabriel Callahan's life, beginning with his father's abandonment when Gabriel was a child & tracing his ambivalent search for wholeness through adolescence & into adulthood.  

The descriptions of Gabriel's artwork & his daily struggles comprise a dizzying trip through metaphor & expression, the undisputed centerpiece of which is the dazzling, complicated narration in vivid prose. This is a demanding & immensely satisfying novel, & certainly one of the better New York artist novels in recent memory.