Things That Fall from the Sky

Weaving together loss and anxiety with fantastic elements and literary sleight-of-hand, Kevin Brockmeier's richly imaginedThings That Fall from the Skyviews the nagging realities of the world through a hopeful lens. In the deftly told "These Hands," a man named Lewis recounts his time babysitting a young girl and his inconsolable sense of loss after she is wrenched away. In "Apples," a boy comes to terms with the complex world of adults, his first pangs of love, and the bizarre death of his Bible coach. "The Jesus Stories" examines a people trying to accelerate the Second Coming by telling the story of Christ in every possible way. And in the O. Henry Award winning "The Ceiling," a man's marriage begins to disintegrate after the sky starts slowly descending. Achingly beautiful and deceptively simple,Things That Fall from the Skydefies gravity as one of the most original story collections seen in recent years. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Kevin Brockmeier is the author of The Truth About Celia and a children’s book, City of Names. He has published stories in The Georgia Review, The Carolina Quarterly, and McSweeney’s, and his story “Space” from Things That Fall from the Sky has been selected for The Best American Short Stories. He has received the Chicago Tribune’s Nelson Algren Award, an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, a James Michener-Paul Engle Fellowship, two O’Henry Awards (one, a first prize), and most recently, a NEA grant. He lives in Little Rock, Arkansas.