The High Heaven

“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

“Paying homage to Southern gothics and Westerns, The High Heaven explores the Space Age in a wickedly stunning narrative.”–Sam Franzini, Our Culture

“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 a novel of cosmic proportions like Wheeler’s, it is striking just how carefully and beautifully the book attends to the out-of-the-way places that feature in it… . If there’s one message Wheeler’s novel brings into sharp focus, it’s this: We belong here, with and for each other.”–Joel Pinckney, Defector

“Wheeler marries a memoirist’s skill for exposition to a poet’s knack for image and sound… . Since reading The High Heaven, I’ve found myself especially aware of the moon as it rises over my patch of New Mexico.”–Jake Bartman, Full Stop

“Joshua Wheeler’s debut novel has got me rethinking my stake in the universe… . Oliver and Izzy’s buddy exploits are the most entrancing first 100 pages of a book I’ve read in some time… . Even when Izzy’s journey descends into dark territories, Wheeler … writes like he’s having a blast.”–Rien Fertel, The Times-Picayune

“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

“With shimmering intelligence and innovative grace, this assured, prismatic debut fuses earthbound struggle and cosmic wonder. Giving a nod to America’s richest literary traditions, Joshua Wheeler has unleashed a wildly entertaining, daringly original, genre-blending vision. The High Heaven deftly traces the evolution of faith and technology, illuminating how our boundless aspirations reshape our sense of what it means to be human.”–Kimberly King Parsons, author of We Were the Universe

“The High Heaven is Dickens dropping acid in the desert of 1960s New Mexico, having visions of outer space and America that may be of the past, present, or future, but that, under the spell of Joshua Wheeler’s poetic sentences, fuse into an act of supreme imagination.”–Fernando A. Flores, author of Brother Brontë

“The High Heaven contains the gritty strangeness of New Mexico and Texas and the gothic allure of New Orleans, full of struggle, despair, and hope. Joshua Wheeler writes with great precision and wild, exceptional vision. What a book! I loved this novel.”–Brandon Hobson, author of The Devil Is a Southpaw

“An astonishing novel, a tour de force. Not since Lee K. Abbott has a writer heard the music of the hinterlands so keenly and put it on paper with such exuberance, such glee, such grace. Joshua Wheeler’s talent is searing.”–Claire Vaye Watkins, author of I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness

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.

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