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Book Title

The High Heaven

Subtitle
A Novel
Author 1
Joshua Wheeler
Body
In 1967, on the night of the first Apollo mission, a child named Izzy is orphaned when the doomsday cult she was born into clashes with the sheriff in the high desert of New Mexico. She’s taken in by a struggling rancher who is trying to keep his mind from falling apart as NASA rocket tests encroach on his outer range. Inspired by the true story of a UFO cult in a village near White Sands, this novel traces Izzy Gently’s whole life: from tragedy on the ranch, through addiction and a rich cast of eccentrics in Texas, to New Orleans, where Izzy is haunted by her past even as she uses lessons from childhood to counsel people who have lost the ability to see the moon.
 
In The High Heaven, Joshua Wheeler explores American piety as it mutates over the course of the Space Age, as technology changes notions of both humanity and the heavens. Shot through with the speculative while paying homage to three iconic genres—neo-Western, picaresque, and Southern gothic—Izzy’s life story becomes a mirror for the warping of manifest destiny and, ultimately, a testament to the human will to seek meaning from the universe.
 
Suffused with the absurdist history of American space travel and the wide-open landscapes of the Southwest, The High Heaven chronicles a larger-than-life adventure of one extraordinary woman who, despite tragedy, never loses sight of redemption.

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List Price
$28.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-64445-357-5
Format
Format
Hardcover
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
352
Trim Size
Trim Size
6 x 9
Keynote
A multigenre debut novel tracing one woman’s quest for faith across the American West during the Space Age

About the Author

Joshua  Wheeler
Credit: Adrienne Battistella
Joshua Wheeler is the author of the essay collection Acid West, which was named a best book of 2018 by Newsweek, The Paris Review, and O, The Oprah Magazine. He’s written for The New York Times, Alta, and Harper’s Magazine, and he teaches at Louisiana State University.
More by author

Upcoming Events

The Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference presents "The Facts of Genre: Explore How the Techniques of Genre Fiction Give New Life to Creative Nonfiction," a workshop with Joshua Wheeler (THE HIGH HEAVEN)

Date:
Location:
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing (ASU) in Tempe, AZview map
Conference registration required. Click here for details.

The Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference presents "Writing the Novel: Honest Talk About Climbing the Mountain," a panel with Joshua Wheeler (THE HIGH HEAVEN), Matt Bell, Tara Ison, Natalia Treviño, and Amanda Ward

Date:
Location:
Virginia G. Piper Center for Creative Writing (ASU) in Tempe, AZview map
Conference registration required. Click here for details.

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation about THE HIGH HEAVEN at Bookworks

Date:
Location:
Bookworks in Albuquerque, NMview map
Free and open to the public. Copies of The High Heaven will be available for purchase from Bookworks. Click here for details.

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation with Fahima Ife about THE HIGH HEAVEN at Collected Works

Date:
Location:
Collected Works Bookstore in Sante Fe, NMview map
Free and open to the public. Copies of The High Heaven will be available for purchase from Collected Works. Click here for details.

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation with Claire Vaye Watkins about THE HIGH HEAVEN at Las Vegas Book Festival

Date:
Location:
Historic Fifth Street School in Las Vegas, NVview map

“Between Somewhere and Nowhere: Desert Fiction” with Joshua Wheeler and Claire Vaye Watkins, moderated by Andrew Kiraly. LOCATION: Downtown Tent. Click here for details.

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation with Jaquira Díaz and Carson Faust about THE HIGH HEAVEN for The Center for Fiction’s “First Novel Friday”

Date:
Location:
Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, NYview map
Kick off the weekend with a happy hour at The Center for Fiction's cash bar for ticket holders in the Members Lounge starting at 6pm. Then, at 7pm, move to the auditorium for readings from the featured debut novelists, followed by a short moderated conversation. The party continues with book signings and signature cocktails to round out the night. Copies of The High Heaven will be available for purchase from the Center for Fiction

This is a ticketed event. Two in-person ticket options: the $5 Community Ticket and the $15+ Supporter Ticket. Click here to purchase tickets.

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation with John Scalzi about THE HIGH HEAVEN at Texas Book Festival

Date:
Location:
Texas Book Festival in Austin, TXview map

“Fromage Fatale: Cults, Capitalism and Cosmic Conspiracies” with Joshua Wheeler (The High Heaven) and John Scalzi (When the Moon Hits Your Eye). LOCATION: Kirkus tent. Click here for details.

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation about THE HIGH HEAVEN at Otero Arts

Date:
Location:
Otero Arts Inc in Alamogordo, NMview map
Free and open to the public. Click here for details.

Praise

  • “In [Wheeler’s] first novel, composed in weird and luminous prose and based on a true story, he interrogates powerful ambivalence about religion and explores the possibilities of transcendence.”—Brendan Driscoll, Booklist, starred review
  • “As school goes back in sessions and the cicadas slow their screaming, is there anything better to read than a bildungsroman? How about a Space Age bildungsroman by Josh Wheeler, gonzo-genius author of the radioactive essay collection Acid West?”—C. Morgan Babst, Garden & Gun

  • True Grit meets Philip K. Dick as Wheeler expertly limns his heroine’s space-age travels in prose that skitters between lyrical and vernacular and sticks the landing.”—Paul Wilner, Alta Journal

  • “Paying homage to Southern gothics and Westerns, The High Heaven explores the Space Age in a wickedly stunning narrative.”—Sam Franzini, Our Culture
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