Things that Fall from the Sky - Softcover

The stories in Kevin Brockmeier's debut collection require, test, try, exhaust, and--just often enough--reward the reader's patience. In Things That Fall from the Sky, Brockmeier writes in painstaking prose that's long on exposition and short on action. Many of these stories concern children. In "These Hands," a thirtysomething man, possibly with Nabokovian intentions, baby-sits an 18-month-old girl. In the title story, a depressive librarian finds relief, and even guidance, in the company of her small granddaughter. And in "The House at the End of the World," 4-year-old Holly describes her isolated life in a shack in the woods with her father: "This was during the collapse of civilization, and I believed we were the only people in the world." Here Brockmeier's expository style pays off, as he describes in detail father and daughter setting traps, lighting lanterns, and tracking streams. It's a kind of end-of-days Little House in the Big Woods, except, of course, the father is crazy, and civilization has not collapsed. In the end, Holly's mother comes to take her away, and Brockmeier doesn't shy for a moment from Holly's pain as she is carried "from the house and the bed and the world which were mine." At his best, Brockmeier writes with excruciatingly thorough imagination. --Claire Dederer

“Delightful, sad and often magical. . . . Brockmeier’s small, carefully made worlds are like Steven Millhauser’s; they are definitely fantastic and miraculously, utterly human.” –The New York Times Book Review

“With so much madness abroad in the world, Brockmeier provides welcome magic. Without lapsing into the simplistic or the sentimental, the stories evoke a human desire to recall that childhood realm of fairy tale,” –Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

“Lyrical. . . . Brockmeier is clearly a talent. The stories are filled with the kinds of metaphors that make you see the world afresh.” —Shout

“The best pieces in this collection . . .allow that in some rare instances, storytelling has the power to redeem.” —The Village Voice

“[A] generous collection. . . . Brockmeier shows us a little bit of hope, a little light to see by, a plan for the future.” —Chicago Tribune