Between Families and the Sky [Paperback]

A father’s untimely death, a gothic grandfather who falls in love with his son’s beautiful widow, a mysterious girl, a rogue golfer, and the watchful eyes of two young people trying to overcome the quirky gravity of their own families — these are the unlikely elements in this lyrical, funny, romantic novel.

“The rooftop was where my father was the most comfortable, where he could be tall and survey life among the quiet chimneys, the broken shingles, the weathered skin of protection between families and the sky.” Between Families and the Sky is a two-part novel about love in all its mysterious forms. “The Hole in the Kitchen Floor” tells the story of James Kinnell’s teenage years — his grandfather’s permanent visit, his mother’s new romance after his father’s death, and especially his kaleidoscopic feelings for his friend Mirele. In “The Memory Holes of Garland Rose,” a young architect replays scenes from a childhood shaped by the death of her mother, her father’s fixation on golf, and the sexual heat between her father and her teacher. As Alan Cumyn draws these searchers together, he creates extended families of complex, loving and eccentric people whose lives dovetail into a rich and satisfying resolution.

Alan Cumyn is a master of strong fluid prose, startling humour in life’s darkest moments, and characters compellingly human in their strengths and flaws. He is the author of six critically acclaimed novels, including Burridge Unbound, finalist for the Giller Prize, and The Sojourn, the novel in which Ramsay Crome first appears.