All the Castles Burned

Praise for All the Castles Burned

“Emotional but never sentimental, ALL THE CASTLES BURNED contrasts privilege with working-class struggles for a gripping story of human resilience.”-Foreword Reviews, starred review

“Nye’s dark, unsettling debut novel exposes the vast differences between the privileged blue-blood students and the scholarship kids at Cincinnati’s prestigious private day school, Rockcastle Preparatory Academy… . a suspenseful and memorable novel.”-Publisher’s Weekly

“This is a coming-of-age story with mysterious twists, a sports buddy novel that is surprisingly sensitive, and a novel of manners contrasting the aspirations of a dysfunctional middle-class family in 1990s Cincinnati with the over-the-top wealth of another dysfunctional family. It is both an appealing read and an introspective examination of the turbulence of male adolescence. Just as Nye’s characters are glued to the O.J. Simpson trial, readers won’t want to look away.”-Kirkus Reviews

“To read Michael Nye’s ALL THE CASTLES BURNED is to immerse oneself in a fully realized world, and a narrative so confidently executed by its author that upon finishing, one should expect a diploma from its Rockcastle Preparatory Academy. Owen Webb and Carson Bly should resonate with anyone who has fallen under the spell of a new friendship, replete with all of its mysteries, attractions, and anxieties. ALL THE CASTLES BURNED is the rare book that bonds itself to the reader immediately, and hangs on until the very last page.”-James Scott, author of the national bestseller The Kept

“With ALL THE CASTLES BURNED, Michael Nye claims his place as one of the best new novelists in America. This is an expertly written and crafted story about coming-of-age in a country where class and ambition still clash violently. The characters live and breathe with every page, and there’s never a doubt that you’re in steady hands.”-Jared Yates Sexton, author of The People Are Going to Rise Like the Waters Upon Your Shore: A Story of American Rage

“Michael Nye’s sharp and vivid prose is as seductive as the promise of undiscovered truths that pulls his young protagonist into an older boy’s shadowy web. Artfully written and beautifully evocative, ALL THE CASTLES BURNED is a dazzling cautionary tale of adolescent longing for friendship and love, adventure and rebellion. I loved it.”-Alex George, author of Setting Free the Kites and A Good American

“ALL THE CASTLES BURNED pulses with hostility, deceit, and our propensity to fit in at all cost. It demands we see the outsiders and everything else we all too often willfully disappear, like honor and love. It hums with the hope that we can recover ourselves, if we dare.”-Ethel Rohan, author of The Weight of Him

“A eerie kind of sensitive menace looms over every page of ALL THE CASTLES BURNED and Michael Nye builds this beautiful and full-throated story of boyhood friendship and jealousy and anger and love, and then tears it down as these boys call forth the fierce changes they’ve been longing for all of their lives.”-William Lychack, author of The Architect of Flowers

“An erudite tale of boyhood, class struggle, and heartbreaking nostalgia.”-Levis

Michael Nye is the author of the story collection Strategies Against Extinction (Queen’s Ferry Press, 2012). He was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University, where he graduated with a BA in English Literature, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he earned his MFA in creative writing. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in American Literary Review, Boulevard, Cincinnati Review, Crab Orchard Review, Epoch, Kenyon Review, New South, Normal School, Sou’wester, and South Dakota Review, among many others. His work has been a finalist for the Katherine Anne Porter Prize in fiction and nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He and his wife live in Washington, D.C.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.