On the top floor of a small hospital, an unlikely piano prodigy lies in
a coma, attended to by his gruff, helpless father. Outside the clinic, a
motley vigil assembles beneath a reluctant New Mexico winter--strangers
in search of answers, a brush with the mystical, or just an escape. To
some the boy is a novelty, to others a religion. Just beyond this ragtag
circle roams a disconsolate wolf on his nightly rounds, protecting and
threatening, learning too much. And above them all, a would-be angel
sits captive in a holding cell of the afterlife, finishing the work he
began on earth, writing the songs that could free him. This unlikely
assortment--a small-town mayor, a vengeful guitarist, all the unseen
desert lives--unites to weave a persistently hopeful story of improbable
communion.
Upon the release of John Brandon's last novel, Citrus County, The New
York Times declared that he "joins the ranks of writers like Denis
Johnson, Joy Williams, Mary Robison and Tom Drury." Now, with A Million
Heavens, Brandon brings his deadpan humor and hard-won empathy to a new
realm of gritty surrealism--a surprising and exciting turn from one of
the best young novelists of our time.
