{"product_id":"open-heaven-9780593802847","title":"Open, Heaven","description":"\u003cb\u003eA stunning novel from the acclaimed young Irish poet Seán Hewitt, a luminous and intensely evocative portrayal of two teeneagers bonding with each other over one heady, transformative year. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eOpen, Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e] is a searching novel orbiting pleasure, loss, and the ecstatic release of both; which is to say it's a novel about time. Which is to say it's a novel about us.\" --Kaveh Akbar, author of \u003ci\u003eMartyr!\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSet in a remote village in the north of England, \u003ci\u003eOpen, Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other's lives. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eJames\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ea sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eis alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village's leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parents\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ehis father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another man\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eLuke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to him \"like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre,\" drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Luke's bravado is a deep wound\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003ea longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eOpen, Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel about desire, yearning, and the terror of first love. With the striking economy and lyricism that animate his work as a poet, Hewitt has written a mesmerizing hymn to boyhood, sensuality, and love in all its forms. A truly exceptional debut.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSEÁN HEWITT's debut collection of poetry, \u003ci\u003eTongues of Fire, \u003c\/i\u003e won the Laurel Prize in 2021, and was shortlisted for The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, and a Dalkey Literary Award. In 2020, he was chosen by \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e (London) as one of their \"30 under 30\" artists in Ireland. His memoir, \u003ci\u003eAll Down Darkness Wide\u003c\/i\u003e, is published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the United States (2022). It was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in nonfiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, and for a LAMBDA award, and won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022. Hewitt is assistant professor in literary practice at Trinity College Dublin, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Knopf Publishing Group","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51201682866450,"sku":"9780593802847","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ef86cc99-bb43-46c0-a5e2-d678869bb1a5.jpg?v=1773738426","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/open-heaven-9780593802847","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}