Description
About Michael Amherst
About The Boyhood Of Cain
‘A powerful, searing tale.’ André Aciman
‘I read this book with my heart in my mouth and could not put it down.’ Mary Costello
‘Amherst has created a young protagonist of extraordinary depth and complexity.’ Nathan Filer
‘A beautiful coming-of-age story.’ Michael Magee
Danny’s family live in a large house close to the school where his father is headmaster. At school, his father’s importance gives Danny certain privileges, but it also sets him apart from his classmates. When a new boy Philip, for whom everything seems easy, arrives, he surprises Danny by wanting to be friends. So when he and Philip are invited to work after school with inspiring, artistic teacher Mr. Miller, Danny believes he has found somewhere he can shine.
Until Danny’s world tilts: his father loses his job, and their house. And then Danny finds himself shut out from Mr. Miller and Philip’s world too. Desperate to make amends, he keeps trying to find a way back in, but will Danny’s efforts send things spinning beyond everyone’s control?
About Seán Hewitt
Seán Hewitt is a poet, memoirist, novelist and literary critic.
His debut collection of poetry, Tongues of Fire, 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 The Sunday Times as one of their “30 under 30” artists in Ireland.
His book J.M. Synge: Nature, Politics, Modernism was published with Oxford University Press (2021).
His memoir, All Down Darkness Wide, was published by Jonathan Cape in the UK and Penguin Press in the USA (2022). It was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, for the Foyles Book of the Year in non-fiction, for the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Polari Prize, the Michel Déon Prize, and for a LAMBDA award. He won the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature in 2022.
300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World, illustrated by Luke Edward Hall, was published in 2023. A second collection of poetry, Rapture’s Road, was published in 2024. His work has been translated into 9 languages.
His debut novel, Open, Heaven, is forthcoming in Spring 2025.
He is Assistant Professor in Literary Practice at Trinity College Dublin, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
(picture credit: Stuart Simpson / Penguin Random House)
About Open, Heaven
Set in the English countryside, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year as two teenage boys meet and transform each other’s lives.
* A Guardian, Irish Times and BBC Book for 2025 *
‘Hewitt writes with such tenderness and grace’ ANNE ENRIGHT
‘A gorgeous ache of a novel’ COLIN WALSH
On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire – an ache for autonomy, tenderness and sex – threatens to unravel his shy exterior.
Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. Luke comes with a reputation for danger, but underneath his bravado lie anxieties and hopes of his own.
With the passing seasons, the two teenagers grow closer and the bond that emerges between them transforms their lives. James falls deeply for Luke, yet he is never sure of Luke’s true feelings. And as the end of summer nears, he has a choice to make – will he risk everything for the possibility of love?
‘A beautiful novel about how a first love can shape a whole life’ HELEN MACDONALD
‘Open, Heaven does what the very best coming-of-age stories do’ MICHAEL MAGEE
‘God’s Own Country meets Heartstopper… People will love it’ BRANDON TAYLOR
‘Seán Hewitt is the real deal’ BENJAMIN MYERS
‘It’s a novel about us’ KAVEH AKBAR
