The Sky Was Ours

One of Parade’s Best New Book Releases This Week
One of Publishers Weekly’s 3 Splashy New Debut Novels
One of 5280 Magazine’s 12 Summer Reads Chosen by the Experts at Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store

“This reimagining of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus follows a 24-year-old woman longing to find a better life—a quest that leads her to meet a man building a set of wings designed for human flight.”
—Gizmodo

“Darkly atmospheric.”
—Literary Hub

“Fassler’s powerful debut novel, The Sky Was Ours, is a searing critique of our modern times. . . . Gilded with gripping, cinematic prose, The Sky Was Ours tackles prescient themes of idealism, ableism, technology, and climate.”
—BOMB Magazine

“The Sky Was Ours is an immersive fever dream of a novel, beautifully written and boldly imagined. It’s a dark fairy tale with a gripping human pulse; attuned to global crisis but also rooted deeply in the psyches of its characters, animated by their grief and most of all by their longing—longing for wonder, escape, transcendence, hope for our profit-rotted world; a longing that soars through these pages with an energy and tenderness utterly its own.” 
—Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy Exams

“A fascinating account of, among other things, how the American default to individual action undermines the collective force we must gather to deal with our perilous moment. A very American Icarus!”
—Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“Humane, cinematic, and unstinting in wonder, Fassler’s debut—a captivating tale of freedom and disenchantment—asks nothing less than what it might mean to live an uncompromised life in a terribly compromised world. It is a beautiful achievement.”
—Hermione Hoby, author of Virtue

“With energy and insight, The Sky Was Ours probes the twin dreams of human flight and freedom from fossil fuels, following a trio of loners as they strive to bring a new world into existence. In rich, evocative prose, Fassler evokes a sky-wide canvas of emotions: exhilaration, love, greed, grief, and the yearning for transcendence. Bittersweet, life-affirming, and unforgettable.”
—Kyle McCarthy, author of Everyone Knows How Much I Love You

“Fassler’s novel is about lonely, dented humans and how our thirst for naked awe can save us, or doom us. It’s beautiful, truly kind, an ode to transcendent obsession, and reading it put me in a trance.”
—Rebecca Rukeyser, author of The Seaplane on Final Approach
 
“Infused with wonder and keen insight onto our shared world, Fassler has crafted a tender, questing ode to impossible dreams, and to the fragile but very real possibilities they open up in us. Rooted in our era of climate crisis and disillusionment but reaching out for something liberatory, it’s the rare book that serves as both a provocation and a balm.”
—Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun
 
“Joe Fassler’s The Sky Was Ours is a potent, prescient, and tremendously moving novel—a book written with genuine love for its characters, for myth, and for our very world itself. A wholly engrossing debut.”
—Alexander Maksik, author of The Long Corner

“This engrossing debut begins with one young woman’s attempt to escape her banal existence. As she takes to the road to flee her piling bills and draining job, she encounters a charismatic recluse—and his tender-hearted son. Fassler has written a beautiful exploration of what happens when possibility meets reality.”
—Kathy Baum, buyer at Tattered Cover Book Store

“Fassler’s prose is dazzling, alive, peppered with rich metaphors . . . A thrilling, hopeful retelling of the myth of Daedalus and Icarus.”
—Kirkus

“With its soupçon of magical realism, Fassler’s intriguing novel is beautifully written—books’ many-colored spines are like ‘a rainbow put through a paper shredder.’ This is a book that invites deliberation, as further evidenced by the included discussion guide.”
—Booklist (starred review)
 
“The dream of flight enthralls an aimless young woman in Fassler’s stunning debut. . . . Fassler’s audacious premise is buoyed by pristine prose and vibrant characterizations. The result is a captivating fairy tale of the slippery line between fanatic and genius.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)