Skip to main navigation Skip to main content
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.

Share Title

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

Joshua Wheeler reading and in conversation about THE HIGH HEAVEN at Louisiana Book Festival

Date:
Location:
Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge, LAview map

LOCATION: State Library, Fifth Floor, Serials. “Fiction After the End: Building, Surviving, and Seeing the World Anew,” featuring Joshua Wheeler, Eiren Caffall, and Malaika Favorite, moderated by Serena Puang. A book signing will follow from 3:15 to 4:00 PM in the Cavalier House Books 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

  • “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

  • “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
  • “Stunning. . . . Izzy’s tale is strange and wild, but it’s also one that illuminates our national obsession with new highs, and new heights.”—Kirkus Reviews
  • 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

Back to Table of Contents